“If you have done that, you must delete that, or you will be held in contempt of the court,” Kuhl said. “This is very serious.”
Zuckerberg’s executive assistant, Andrea Besmehn, and another man were seen wearing Meta glasses as they walked into the Los Angeles courthouse.
The plaintiff’s lawyer questioned Zuckerberg over his media training, bringing up an internal document showing how Meta communications staffers have pushed Zuckerberg to appear more “authentic, direct, human, insightful, and real,” and “not try hard, fake, robotic, corporate, or cheesy” in public.
Zuckerberg denied that he was coached and said that the comments were just “feedback.”
“I think I’m actually well known to be very bad at this,” he said, getting some laughs. Zuckerberg has long faced mockery and criticism for appearing stiff, robotic, or nervous during his public appearances.
When asked by lawyer Mark Lanier if people tend to use something more if it’s addictive, Zuckerberg answered: “I’m not sure what to say to that. I don’t think that applies here.”
Lanier grilled Zuckerberg about a comment he made during a past congressional hearing, where he said Instagram employees are not given goals to increase the amount of time people spend on the platform. Zuckerberg pushed back against the idea that users’ time spent on the app was a company goal.
Zuckerberg responded that Instagram previously had time engagement goals but moved away from those targets to focus on utility, given the “basic assumption” that “if something is valuable, people will use it more because it’s useful to them.”
The plaintiff’s lawyers spent a significant portion of their time questioning Zuckerberg about Instagram’s efforts to remove users under the age of 13.
“You expect a 9-year-old to read all of the fine print,” a lawyer for the plaintiff asked Zuckerberg, according to CNBC. “That’s your basis for swearing under oath that children under 13 are not allowed?”
A Meta spokesperson told the Associated Press the company strongly disagrees with the allegations in the lawsuit and said they are “confident the evidence will show our long-standing commitment to supporting young people.”
Meta faces another consumer protection trial in New Mexico brought by the state’s attorney general, who alleges that the company failed to prevent child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
