Mosseri says it's 'news to me' that Instagram staff limited his access to teen safety data

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified Tuesday in a trial brought by attorneys general from dozens of US states, who allege Meta deliberately designed its apps to be addictive for children despite internal research showing harm to young users.

The trial surfaced a 2023 slide deck prepared by Instagram designers showing that content related to suicide, self-injury and eating disorders reached teens at a disproportionately high rate — two and a half times more than adults. Content deemed "non-recommendable" for teens was also viewed by teens 1.5 times more often than by adults.

Messages shown during the trial revealed that a company lawyer told employees to remove those statistics from the presentation to "limit" Mosseri's exposure to the information. Mosseri testified he had never heard of such a conversation and had never taken part in discussions about restricting his own access to data. He said lawyers' role was to review documents for accuracy and legal compliance.

Francesco Fogu, Instagram's Director of Product Design, who testified before Mosseri, said he was surprised by the instruction to hide data from leadership but was ultimately allowed to share it verbally. He added the presentation helped prompt the creation of Instagram's teen accounts.

Testimony also focused on Instagram's "take a break" feature, which reminds users to stop scrolling. Only 1.8% of users opted in after its 2021 launch. Former Meta data scientist George Volichenko said adoption among teens was even lower — starting at 0.165% and later rising to 0.2%. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers pressed Fogu, who admitted he didn't know the feature's highest-ever adoption rate.

Mosseri noted that teen accounts, now mandatory for users under 16, have time limits enabled by default. He is the first senior Meta executive to testify in the trial, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg also expected to appear.