Instagram CEO denies addiction claims in landmark US trial

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri on Wednesday rejected the notion that users could be clinically addicted to social media as he testified in a landmark California trial over whether his company knowingly hooked children on its platform for profitMeta the parent company of Instagram and Facebook and Googleowned YouTube are defendants in the blockbuster trial which could set a legal precedent regarding whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to childrenI think its important to differentiate between clinical addiction and problematic use Mosseri said as he was grilled by plaintiff attorney Mark LanierIm sure I said that Ive been addicted to a Netflix show when I binged it really late one night but I dont think its the same thing as clinical addiction he addedLanier immediately challenged this point emphasizing that the witness did not have a degree in medicine or psychologyIve never claimed being able to diagnose addiction clinically Mosseri responded during the exchangeIm sure I was using the word too casuallyFacing him mothers of teenagers who had taken their own lives held back their anger in the public galleryThese representatives of families who have filed complaints against major platforms in the United States had camped out in the rain outside the courthouse to secure seats Dopamine dispensers Addiction is at the heart of the civil trial which centers on allegations that a 20yearold woman identified as Kaley GM suffered severe mental harm after becoming addicted to social media as a young childShe started using YouTube at six and joined Instagram at 11 before moving on to Snapchat and TikTok two or three years laterThe Instagram that Kaley signed up for was very different and presented a much smaller set of risks back then Mosseri said noting that the service was a much smaller more focused app before it had to adapt to the changing worldMosseri described safety features added to Instagram since it was bought by Facebook in 2012 some of which had negative effects on engagement and revenueMosseri was the first major Silicon Valley figure to appear before the jury to defend himself against accusations that Instagram functions as little more than a dopamine slot machine for vulnerable young peopleMetas attorney reasoned in opening remarks that the suffering encountered by the plaintiff was due to troubles in her home life and could not be attributed to use of Instagram or other social mediaAn attorney for YouTube insisted that the video platform was neither intentionally addictive nor technically social media but more a viewing venue like NetflixIn front of the jury of six men and six women Mosseri pushed back against the idea that Meta was motivated by a move fast and break things ethos that valued profit over safetyProtecting minors over the long run is even good for the business and for profit he saidMosseris testimony precedes the highly anticipated appearance of his boss Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg currently scheduled for February 18 with YouTube CEO Neil Mohan the following day Apps or traps In opening remarks this week plaintiffs attorney Lanier told the jury that YouTube and Meta both engineer addiction in young peoples brains to gain users and profitsMeta and Google dont only build apps they build traps Lanier saidUnder questioning Mosseri said that while teens tended to be trendsetters when it comes to technology Instagram makes less money from them than from older users because they tend not to click on adsThey dont have a lot of expendable income to then buy things if they do click on ads Mosseri addedSocial media firms face more than a thousand lawsuits accusing them of leading young users to become addicted to content and suffer from depression eating disorders psychiatric hospitalization and even suicideKaley GMs case is being treated as a bellwether proceeding with an outcome that could set the tone for a wave of similar litigation across the United StatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever