Instagram CEO dismisses idea of social media addiction in landmark trial | Social media

Instagram’s CEO rejected the idea that users can be addicted to social media in a landmark trial in California on Wednesday.

“I think it’s important to differentiate between clinical addiction and problematic drinking,” Adam Mosseri said on the witness stand. Psychologists do not consider social media addiction an official diagnosis. Researchers have documented the harmful consequences of compulsive drinking among young people, and lawmakers around the world are concerned about its addictive potential.

Mosseri is the first executive to testify in a series of lawsuits in which hundreds of families and school districts sued Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, alleging the companies knowingly created addictive products that harmed young people’s mental health.

The original lawsuit, in Los Angeles, focuses on a 20-year-old woman identified by the initials KGM who alleges that the social media platform’s addictive design features, including endless scrolling, exacerbated her depression and suicidal thoughts. KGM and two other plaintiffs participate in benchmark trials – test cases designed to gauge jury response for both sides.

Mark Lanier, the plaintiff’s attorney, questioned Mosseri on Wednesday about whether Instagram puts profits ahead of safety, as well as whether Instagram’s cosmetic filters promote plastic surgery. Mosseri said the company is testing new features that will be used by younger users before they are released. “We try to be as safe as possible but also censor as little as possible,” he said.

Some families saw this exchange as confirmation of their beliefs about the damage caused by Instagram. Matthew P Bergman, founding attorney at the Social Media Victims Law Center and an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement: “Adam Mosseri’s sworn testimony today revealed what the families had long suspected: Instagram executives made a conscious decision to put growth ahead of the safety of minors. »

Mosseri has already faced scrutiny over whether he may have ignored internal warnings about the platform’s addictive design. A conversation between Meta researchers, mentioned by the plaintiff’s lawyer in his opening statement, highlighted the addictive nature of the platform. One employee suggested in internal correspondence that “IG is a drug” and another said: “Lol, I mean all social media.” We are essentially resellers. »

One also mentioned, “I know Adam doesn’t want to hear it… He freaked out when I talked about dopamine in my Adolescent Fundamentals main exam, but there’s no denying it. It’s biological. It’s psychological.”

Some parents who allege their children were harmed — and in some cases, died — because of the social media platform’s addictive design were in court Wednesday. That includes John DeMay, whose son, Jordan, was 17 when he killed himself in 2022 — hours after being the target of an online sextortion scam. Two Nigerian brothers, who used a hacked Instagram account to pretend they were a girl, blackmailed Jordan after he sent them naked photos of himself; they demanded $1,000 from him and threatened to send the images to his friends and family.

DeMay said he expected Mosseri to do much beyond trying to save face before his testimony. “This is already absolutely a victory for us because the testimony is public, the internal documents are public, and now Mr. Mosseri is going to have to get on the stand and try to justify why his company was doing what it was doing to make such addictive products, and continued to do it even though children were dying from them,” DeMay said, hours before Mosseri’s testimony.

Mosseri’s remarks follow opening arguments in the trial earlier this week. Mark Lanier, the victims’ lawyer, cited internal Meta and Google documents to claim they targeted children as young as four; he called social media apps “digital casinos” because of features like endless scrolling. YouTube’s lawyers have rejected claims that the platform is considered social media and that individuals are addicted. Meta’s lawyers challenged the science behind social media addiction and argued that KGM’s mental health issues were linked to family problems and abuse, not social media.

Instagram has, in recent years, added some security features aimed at its young users. But a 2025 study of these tools by Fairplay – a nonprofit that campaigns to reduce the influence of big tech on children – found that “fewer than one in five tools are fully functional and two-thirds (64%) are either substantially ineffective or no longer exist.”

The plaintiffs are not focusing on individual malicious actors or content, but rather on allegations that social media companies knowingly made their products addictive. This new strategy has so far allowed plaintiffs to circumvent a federal law that generally protects platforms from lawsuits related to harmful third-party content.

DeMay said he was in the U.S. Senate in January 2024 when executives from major tech companies testified before Congress on child safety. He said he has more hope in the courts’ ability to change policy.

“Every time we try to pass something legislatively, it’s a chore. I’ve lost a lot of hope and I know other parents have too,” he said. Financial pressure could make a difference, he said: “These companies — when they start getting sued for hundreds of millions of dollars by all these victims for the harm they’ve inflicted on their users for so long — will be forced to make changes, or they’ll go bankrupt.” »