Meta Platforms Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday said that he regretted the company’s slow progress in identifying underage users on Instagram, as he faced stinging criticism at a landmark social media trial over accusations that his company deliberately hooked children.
Asked to comment on complaints from inside the company that not enough was being done to verify whether children under 13 were using the platform, the 41-year-old head of Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, said improvements had been made.
However, “I always wish that we could have gotten there sooner,” he added.
Photo: Reuters
Zuckerberg was the most hotly anticipated witness in the California trial, the first in a series of lawsuits filed by American families against social media platforms.
The trial marked the first time the multibillionaire addressed the safety of his world-dominating platforms directly before a jury and under oath.
Zuckerberg was very reserved at first, an Agence France-Presse journalist in the courtroom reported. However, he grew animated, showing signs of annoyance, shaking his head and waving his hands as he turned toward the jury.
Photo: Bloomberg
The 12 jurors in Los Angeles heard the increasingly testy testimony, as plaintiff lawyer Mark Lanier pressed Zuckerberg on age verification and the tycoon’s guiding philosophy for making decisions at the vast social media company he controls.
During questioning by his own lawyers, a more relaxed Zuckerberg described time spent on the app as a “side effect” of a quality experience and often addressed the jurors directly to emphasize his points.
He also stressed his belief that Apple and Google, the companies behind operating systems powering most of the world’s smartphones, should arrange for age verification at the handset level instead of leaving it to each app.
“Doing it at the level of the phone is just a lot clearer than having every single app out there have to do this separately,” Zuckerberg said.
“It would be pretty easy for them,” he added.
Zuckerberg faced a barrage of internal e-mails, including warnings from colleagues that age verification was not fit for purpose and others that seemed to plainly display that encouraging more time spent on Instagram was long a central goal of the company.
The trial is set to last until late next month, when the jury is to decide whether Meta, as well as Google-owned YouTube, bear responsibility for the mental health problems suffered by Kaley G.M., a 20-year-old California resident who has been a heavy social media user since childhood.
Kaley G.M. started using YouTube at age six, Instagram at nine, then TikTok and Snapchat.
Under-13s are not allowed on Instagram, and Lanier pressed Zuckerberg on the fact that Kaley had easily signed up for the platform.
Zuckerberg was confronted with an internal document that said Instagram had 4 million users under 13 in 2015, at the time the plaintiff adopted the app, and that 30 percent of all children aged 10 to 12, or “tweens,” in the US were users.
Zuckerberg said that “we’re in the right place now” when it comes to age verification.
Lanier said that young people like Kaley were subject to Meta’s efforts to increase time spent on its wildly popular apps, despite Zuckerberg having told the US Congress under oath that this was not the case.
Faced with e-mails displaying internal targets for usage, Zuckerberg said that “we used to have goals around time,” but that the company’s aim was always to “build useful services” that connected people.
Zuckerberg was also read an old e-mail from former head of public policy Nick Clegg that said “the fact that we say we don’t allow under-13s on our platform, yet have no way of enforcing it, is just indefensible.”
The trial is set to determine whether Google and Meta deliberately designed their platforms to encourage compulsive use among young people, damaging their mental health in the process.
The case is expected to establish a standard for resolving thousands of lawsuits that blame social media for fueling an epidemic of depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide among young people.
TikTok and Snapchat, also named in the complaint, reached settlements with the plaintiff before the trial began.
Heavy rain and strong winds yesterday disrupted flights, trains and ferries, forcing the closure of roads across large parts of New Zealand’s North Island, while snapping power links to tens of thousands. Domestic media reported a few flights had resumed operating by afternoon from the airport in Wellington, the capital, although cancelations were still widespread after airport authorities said most morning flights were disrupted. Air New Zealand said it hoped to resume services when conditions ease later yesterday, after it paused operations at Wellington, Napier and Palmerston North airports. Online images showed flooded semi-rural neighborhoods, inundated homes, trees fallen on vehicles and collapsed
‘COST OF DEFECTION’: Duterte’s announcement could be an effort to keep allies in line with the promise of a return to power amid political uncertainty, an analyst said Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte yesterday announced she would run for president of the Southeast Asian nation of 116 million in 2028. Duterte, who is embroiled in a bitter feud with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, was impeached last year only to see the country’s Supreme Court throw the case out over procedural issues. Her announcement comes just days before her father, former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, begins a pretrial hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands over crimes against humanity allegedly committed as part of a brutal crackdown on drugs. “I offer my life, my strength and my future
POST-UPRISING: Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmakers were yesterday expected to formally elect Tarique Rahman as their leader and new head of government Bangladesh’s prime minister-to-be Tarique Rahman and lawmakers were yesterday sworn into parliament, becoming the first elected representatives since a deadly 2024 uprising. Rahman is set to take over from an interim government that has steered the country of 170 million people for 18 months since the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina was overthrown. The lawmakers, who promised loyalty to Bangladesh, were sworn in by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmakers are expected to formally elect Rahman as their leader, with President Mohammed Shahabuddin then to administer the oath of office to the prime minister and his ministers
NOT YET THERE: While the show was impressive, it failed to demonstrate their ability to move in unstructured environments, such as a factory floor, an expert said Dancing humanoid robots on Monday took center stage during the annual China Media Group’s Spring Festival Gala, China’s most-watched official television broadcast. They lunged and backflipped (landing on their knees), they spun around and jumped. Not one fell over. The display was impressive, but if robots can now dance and perform martial arts, what else can they do? Experts have mixed opinions, with some saying the robots had limitations and that the display should be viewed through a lens of state propaganda. Developed by several Chinese robotics firms, the robots performed a range of intricate stunts, including martial arts, comedy sketches and choreographed
RSS