The head of Instagram downplayed the devastating consequences social media can have on youngsters — telling a jury that his app isn’t an addictive digital drug, but more like a Netflix binge.
Adam Mosseri, the face of the photo-sharing giant, rejected claims that the platform is clinically addictive, even as internal documents reportedly show his own employees calling themselves “pushers.”
“I think it’s important to differentiate between clinical addiction and problematic use,” Mosseri testified when he was questioned by the plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier.
“I’m sure I said that I’ve been addicted to a Netflix show when I binged it really late one night, but I don’t think it’s the same thing as clinical addiction.”
The landmark trial centers on 20-year-old “K.G.M.” who claimed in a lawsuit that she was sucked into a social media spiral that left her with severe mental health issues.
While on the stand, Mosseri locked horns with Lanier over Instagram’s cosmetic filters — which slims noses, plumps lips and smoothes skin with a quick tap. Lanier grilled him on whether those beauty-boosting effects were subtly warping users’ sense of reality and fueling impossible standards.
“There’s always trade-off between safety and speech,” Mosseri said. “We’re trying to be as safe as possible and censor as little as possible.”
While Mosseri acknowledged the potential harms of social media, he noted that Instagram deliberately tries out new features youngsters will use on the app before launching them.
“Protecting minors over the long run is even good for the business and for profit,” he said.
Lanier then got personal, asking Mosseri about his three sons before flashing an internal Meta report that warned kids who’ve faced trauma are especially vulnerable to harm from social media, and asked whether platforms like his should be doing more to shield children with rocky upbringings from potential damage online.
“We do,” Mosseri replied. “We try to identify all different types of risks.”
Mosseri is the first big social media fish to testify, with Meta kingpin Mark Zuckerberg expected in the coming weeks.
With Post wires