Mark Zuckerberg took the witness stand in L.A. yesterday to defend his company in a high-stakes trial. This case is being watched by everyone in the tech world, with many experts calling it the social media industry’s “Big Tobacco” moment (via CNBC).
Meta CEO arrives at L.A. Superior Court on Feb. 18, 2026 (Image via CNBC)
For those who aren’t familiar, a 20-year-old woman, known in court as KGM, is suing Meta, claiming that apps like Instagram and YouTube were designed to be addictive and caused her deep mental health struggles, including depression and self-harm.
During his testimony, Zuckerberg faced a jury for the first time in a civil trial. He sat in the Los Angeles Superior Court to answer questions about how his apps affect young people. One of the most interesting parts of the day involved Apple. Zuckerberg’s lawyers showed emails from February 2018 where he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“I think there are opportunities that our company and Apple could work on together, and I wanted to discuss that with Tim,” Zuckerberg said in the courtroom. He explained that he wanted to talk about the “health and well-being of teenagers and children” nearly eight years ago. This was part of his defense to show that he has been thinking about safety for a long time.
The lawyers for the woman suing Meta pushed back hard. They showed internal documents from Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. These papers showed that the company had goals to increase the time people spend on the app.
The goal was 40 minutes a day in 2023 and 46 minutes a day by 2026. Zuckerberg argued that these numbers were just “internal benchmarks” to see how they compared to other apps. “I’m not trying to maximize the amount of time people spend every month,” he told the court.
Another big topic was beauty filters. These are the digital tools that change how people look in photos. Some experts say these filters make young girls feel bad about their bodies. Zuckerberg admitted that he personally lifted a ban on filters that look like cosmetic surgery.
The court also heard about the number of children using these apps. Documents showed that about 4 million children under the age of 13 use Instagram in the United States alone. Zuckerberg admitted that some kids lie about their age to get on the app.
The trial is expected to continue into March.
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All around nice and caring guy