Instagram head Adam Mosseri defends teen safety record in $200 billion Meta trial

Executive testimony in Oakland

Instagram head Adam Mosseri took the witness stand on Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, marking the first appearance by a top Meta executive in a multi-state child safety trial. The proceedings entered their second week and fourth day of testimony before a jury. Four states (California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey) represent the initial trial group among 29 states that filed suit against Meta in 2023. State prosecutors allege that Meta knowingly engineered Facebook and Instagram to addict children, contributing to youth mental health problems including depression and anxiety. Mosseri testified for approximately one hour in the late afternoon and is scheduled to resume his testimony on Wednesday.

Scrutiny over the Take a Break tool

During cross-examination, Colorado senior prosecutor Jason Slothouber questioned Mosseri regarding the adoption rates of Instagram's Take a Break feature. The tool encourages teenagers to close the app after designated periods of scrolling. State attorneys presented data showing that only 1.8% of teenage users opted into the tool before Meta made it a default setting in September 2024. Mosseri had stated in a December 2021 blog post that more than 90% of teenagers who activated the feature chose to keep it enabled, though the company did not publish the low overall opt-in percentage. Mosseri defended the platform's gradual rollout of teen controls while answering questions about user engagement.

Most teens didn't want it. We decided to push forward with it anyway.

Internal research and legal review

The court also examined internal Meta communications from 2023 regarding teenage exposure to harmful material. A July 2023 internal slide deck prepared by Instagram product designers showed that teenagers viewed content related to suicide, self-injury, and eating disorders at 2.5 times the rate of adult users. The presentation also revealed that teenagers encountered content classified as non-recommendable at 1.5 times the adult rate. Prior to the executive briefing, a Meta company lawyer directed staff to remove those specific statistics to limit Mosseri's direct exposure to the findings. Earlier in the trial, Instagram Director of Product Design Francesco Fogu testified that he was surprised by the instruction, noting that he had never previously been told to withhold data from executive leadership, though he was allowed to share the figures verbally.

I am not trying to encourage my team to hide anything.

Scope of the multi-state lawsuit

The federal trial in Oakland is scheduled to last approximately six weeks. All 29 suing states allege that Meta violated federal law by collecting and utilizing the personal data of children under 13 without parental consent. The plaintiff states seek approximately $200 billion in financial damages alongside court-ordered design modifications to protect young users. Meta has denied the allegations, stating that internal research does not demonstrate a direct causal connection between adolescent social media use and diminished mental well-being. The company also contends with parallel litigation in state courts, including an active case in Tennessee and a prior Los Angeles verdict that awarded $6 million against Meta and Google.