Meta’s first witness told a jury the problem was Mark Zuckerberg’s culture

Key Points:

• Arturo Béjar, a former Meta employee, testified that the safety issues on Facebook and Instagram stemmed from the company culture established by Mark Zuckerberg, making it nearly impossible to implement effective safety features for minors.
• The trial, involving California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, accuses Meta of designing its platforms to addict minors through features like infinite scrolling and autoplay, prioritizing user engagement and data harvesting over safety.
• Meta's defense argues it has been aware of teen risks, worked to address them, and did not mislead the public, while questioning whether the harms described by Béjar have feasible solutions that the company ignored.
• The case, heard in Oakland, differs from others by being pursued by states under consumer protection and children's privacy laws, potentially exposing Meta to penalties as high as $1.4 trillion, although the states have not confirmed this figure.
• The trial is expected to last six weeks, with uncertainty about whether Mark Zuckerberg will testify, and the outcome hinges on proving that Meta knowingly concealed harm to young users while promoting addictive platform designs.