Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Instagram head Adam Mosseri took the stand on Tuesday in a closely watched US trial pitting Meta against a coalition of American states over allegations of social media related harms to young users, defending the platform’s safety record under sustained questioning.
During the testimony, the Meta executive who oversees Instagram was pressed by the prosecuting attorney over the low adoption rates of two safety tools, Take a Break and Quiet Mode, launched in 2021 and 2023 respectively. Mosseri acknowledged that the percentage of teenagers actively using these tools remained in the low single digits before Instagram made them default features rather than optional settings.
When asked whether Meta had disclosed the low adoption figures publicly at the time, Mosseri admitted the company had not done so, but pointed out that the safety features were subsequently turned on by default within Teen Accounts, a product that includes built-in parental controls and was launched in 2024.
The testimony forms part of a broader landmark trial in which 29 US states have accused Meta of deliberately designing Instagram and Facebook to maximise engagement among young users in ways that compromise their well-being, while also allegedly violating child data protection laws. Meta has firmly rejected the accusations, maintaining that its internal research has found no clear link between adolescents’ social media use and a decline in their overall well-being.
The case is being closely watched as a potential bellwether for how courts and regulators approach platform accountability for the safety of minors online, with the outcome likely to influence how major technology companies design and disclose safety features for younger users going forward.
