![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26050035832286-e1772717809479.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Prosecutors began presenting never-before-seen video depositions of Meta executives at a trial in New Mexico on Tuesday to bolster accusations that the social media conglomerate failed to disclose what it knows about harmful effects to children on its platforms, including Instagram.<\/p>\n
New Mexico prosecutors are billing depositions from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram leader Adam Mosseri as centerpieces of the state\u2019s case against Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Prosecutors have accused Meta of violating state consumer protection laws.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say the\u00a0dangers of addiction to social media\u00a0as well as child sexual exploitation on Meta\u2019s platforms weren\u2019t properly addressed or disclosed by the company.<\/p>\n
Meta attorney Kevin Huff pushed back on those assertions during opening statements on Feb. 9, highlighting efforts to weed out harmful content from its platforms while warning users that some content still gets through its safety net. He said Meta discloses the risks.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, the New Mexico jury watched a video in which prosecutors peppered Mosseri with questions about Meta\u2019s approach to safety, corporate profits and social media features. They also asked him about policies for young users that might contribute to sleep deprivation, unwanted communications with adults and negative effects of cosmetic beauty filters.<\/p>\n
Counsel for state prosecutors repeatedly asked whether Instagram should do everything it can to keep teens safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we should do what we can,\u201d Mosseri said. \u201cI think that there\u2019s over 2 billion people on Instagram, which means there are millions of teens on Instagram. So when you say everything, I want to be clear that we are a large enough platform that sometimes some things will \u2014 so for instance, problematic content will be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under deposition, Mosseri also said that at Meta \u201cwe will prioritize safety over profits.\u201d Prosecutors juxtaposed that assertion with the company\u2019s internal audits, emails and messages about proposed social media features that might change the compulsive use of Instagram by teens or interrupt negative social comparisons, and weren\u2019t always adopted.<\/p>\n
Pressured about a decision by Instagram to continue recommending connections with teen accounts to adults amid concerns about child sexual exploitation, Mosseri described the company\u2019s belief in \u201cproportional risk mitigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe carved out a subset of adults that we thought might be more likely to be problematic,\u201d he said. \u201cWe basically tried to identify a subset of adults that might be risky and then remove them from \u2026 accounts you should follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mosseri also talked about the positive powers of social media to connect people, including his own relatives living on different continents. But he also acknowledged that Meta platforms may offer unwanted recommendations \u2014 in one instance, content about babies to a woman after miscarriage \u2014 and cited Instagram\u2019s \u201crecommendations reset\u201d as a creative solution.<\/p>\n
The New Mexico case and a separate trial playing out in Los Angeles could set the course for thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies.<\/p>\n
Zuckerberg testified last month in Los Angeles\u00a0about young people\u2019s use of Instagram\u00a0and has answered questions from\u00a0Congress about youth safety\u00a0on Meta\u2019s platforms.<\/p>\n
During his 2024 congressional testimony, he apologized to families whose lives had been upended by tragedies they believed were caused by social media. But while he told parents he was \u201csorry for everything you have all been through,\u201d he stopped short of taking direct responsibility for it.<\/p>\n
Mosseri\u00a0testified at the California trial\u00a0that he disagrees with the idea that people can be clinically addicted to social media platforms \u2014 an opinion repeated in the New Mexico courtroom by deposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a scientist, but I don\u2019t believe the latest science suggests that social media platforms are addictive,\u201d Mosseri said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Mark #Zuckerberg #Adam #Mosseris #words #neverbeforeseen #videos #airing #addiction #trial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prosecutors began presenting n… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[10276,10685,5817,4209,73,694,607,15150,15151,930,1296,2879,6928,547],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}