Meta CEO caps four weeks of state testimony

New Mexico rested its case against Meta last week by showing video testimony of the company's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in the state’s effort to convince jurors that the digital giant fails to protect children from sexual exploitation.

The parent company of Instagram and Facebook began offering its own expert witnesses last week after nearly four weeks of state testimony from nearly two dozen witnesses before a jury in Santa Fe.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the suit against Meta Platforms and Zuckerberg in 2023, alleging the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp failed to protect children from sexual abuse, online solicitation and human trafficking.

The trial in 1st Judicial District Court is scheduled through March 27 before Judge Bryan Biedscheid.

During some two hours of recorded testimony, New Mexico’s attorneys quizzed Zuckerberg about many of Meta's internal reports and emails that prosecutors have offered as evidence since the trial began Feb. 9.

New Mexico’s legal challenge differs from thousands of other lawsuits filed against social media companies across the country by focusing on what the lawsuit argues is Meta’s failure to protect young people from sexual exploitation. 

The lawsuit alleges that Meta “knowingly exposes children to the twin dangers of sexual exploitation and mental health harm.”

Time and again, Zuckerberg responded that he was unfamiliar with the contents of the reports and its authors and often disagreed with their findings. He also said the company has revised its goals and policies in response to problems reported by users.

"Our goal is not to build something that people use in ways that they don't want," he said. "We want to build something that's valuable for people to communicate and stay in touch with people they care about."

Zuckerberg's testimony, recorded last year, aligns with the message Meta attorneys expressed in opening statements — that Meta has created strong tools and policies to protect young users from sexual predators and purge harmful content from its platforms.

Ken Huff, a Meta attorney, told jurors that the company designs its apps to be "fun and entertaining, not to harm teens in New Mexico."

Previn Warren, an attorney for New Mexico, asked Zuckerberg if he understood the meaning of "problematic use" of social media platforms.

"My understanding of it is when people use our apps more than they would like to be using them," Zuckerberg said. But he denied that Meta platforms can be addictive and steadfastly avoided use of the word.

"That's not what we're trying to do with the products and it's not how I think they work," he said.

Donald Migliori, an attorney for the state, said in opening statements that the state would offer internal Meta documents that contrast sharply with the company’s public statements about youth safety. He alleged that Meta places particular value on teens and preteens because they remain engaged for longer periods, increasing the company's advertising revenue.

Warren asked Zuckerberg if Meta set goals to increase the amount of time teenagers spend on the company's platforms as some internal company documents have indicated.

"Maybe in the past," Zuckerberg responded. "At this point, our practice is not to give teams goals to specifically optimize or increase time spent." He also said that more time spent on the platform may indicate that people find it useful.

"If we build something that's useful and therefore people want to use it more, I don't think that's bad," he said. "That's good, right?"

Warren also asked Zuckerberg if he was aware that Meta's own research found that Instagram and Facebook features were designed "to provide a dopamine rush" to increase the time teenagers spend on the apps.

"I don't think so," Zuckerberg said. "I don't. I think that you're talking about specific studies that I don't think kind of convey the consensus view of how we felt." And not all Meta studies reached those conclusions, he said.

"I think probably problematic use is one of the topics that we study and talked about publicly, and I think we probably published research on it," he said.

A Meta witness, Mary Wirth, an expert in child sexual abuse investigations and technology, told jurors that Meta does a better job than any other social media firm to police its platforms for sexually explicit content.

Meta consistently reports child sexual abuse content to law enforcement and nonprofits, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Wirth testified.

Olivier Uyttebrouck covers courts for the Journal. You can reach him at olivier@abqjournal.com.