Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear as a witness in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday for a historic social media addiction trial which includes families who lost children to online platforms as their witnesses.
Kaley and her mother brought a case against Meta and YouTube for creating addictive features which they claimed caused harm to her mental health. This is for the first of more than 1500 similar lawsuits to go to trial potentially setting a precedent for holding social media companies accountable.
Reportedly, parents from across the US, including those who witnessed Zuckerberg’s 2024 Congressional apology, are travelling to secure seats for his testimony. Joann Bogard, whose 15 year old son Mason died attempting the choking challenge she says he learned about on YouTube, said she hopes the trial will push Congress to pass online safety legislation. “We’re all doing our best as parents, but we’re fighting these trillion-dollar companies,” she said.
Kaley started using Instagram when she was nine years old, and she started using YouTube when she was six years old.
Her lawyers state that the platform's addictive design elements caused her to develop anxiety and body dysmorphia and face bullying that led to her suicidal thoughts that emerged during times when she used the platform for more than 16 hours daily.
Meta asserts that her mental health problems developed because she experienced difficulties with her family rather than because she used social media platforms.
Critics of the platform state that the security measures which Meta has implemented through their teen accounts and default privacy settings and content restrictions should not be handled by parents and teenagers but should rest with the platform itself.
Zuckerberg provided his testimony in court after Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri testified in court during the previous week. The internal documents reveal that Meta chooses to develop its platform through teenage engagement because it believes this approach will generate a longterm user base.
The platform design changes which Meta will need to implement because of losses will result in financial damages exceeding one billion dollars.
Social media companies face scrutiny in other trials, which include New Mexico cases and school district lawsuits that draw parallels to 1990s tobacco litigation.
The jury will decide Kaley's case by evaluating whether Meta sufficiently protects its young users and whether social media executives, including Zuckerberg, must take responsibility for the dangers associated with their platforms.