By Meghan Bobrowsky

Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg defended the company's practices and highlighted his own philanthropy at a landmark social media trial in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Questioning Zuckerberg, Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the plaintiff, showed an email from 2015 in which the CEO stated his goal for 2016 was to increase users' time spent by 12%.

"We used to give teams goals on time spent and we don't do that anymore because I don't think that's the best way to do it," Zuckerberg, wearing a navy blue suit and tie, said on the witness stand in sworn testimony.

Lanier also asked Zuckerberg whether he knew there were children under 13 using Meta's apps. Zuckerberg said the company's policy was that children under 13 aren't allowed on the platform and that they are removed when identified.

Lanier showed an internal Meta email from 2015 that estimated 4 million children under 13 were using Instagram. He estimated that figure would represent approximately 30% of all kids aged 10 to 12 in the U.S.

In response to a question about his ownership stake in Meta, which amounts to roughly more than $200 billion, Zuckerberg said he has pledged to donate most of his money to charity.

"The better that Meta does, the more money I will be able to invest in science research," he said.

Meta Platforms and Google's YouTube are facing the first of 3,000 lawsuits filed against them, alleging that the companies should be held liable for building algorithmic recommendations and product features such as the infinite scroll and autoplay that make it difficult for teens to log off.

The first case is a personal-injury lawsuit filed by a woman who goes by the initials K.G.M. in court documents. She alleges that social-media use as a child and teenager led her to struggle with body dysmorphia, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, addiction and depression. Her complaint says she started using social media apps when she was 10 years old.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement prior to the trial's start that K.G.M.'s lawyers "will try to paint an intentionally misleading picture of Meta with cherry-picked quotes and snippets of conversations taken out of context. The full record will show a company that has consistently put teen safety ahead of growth for over a decade."

A parallel case is also currently playing out in New Mexico state court, brought by the state's attorney general, Raúl Torrez. That lawsuit alleges that Meta designed its features and algorithms in a way that was dangerous to children and that it failed to protect them from sexual exploitation on their platforms.

To gather evidence for the case, the plaintiffs set up fake Facebook accounts of minors and tracked who engaged with them.

A spokesman for Meta said the New Mexico attorney general, Torrez, was making "sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting arguments by cherry picking selected documents" and that Meta is "focused on demonstrating our longstanding commitment to supporting young people."

Core to the central allegations in both trials is Meta's business model. The company sells advertisements on its platforms, which it shows to users. The longer users stay on the platforms, the more ads Meta can show them.

In its most recently reported quarter, Meta posted record revenue of nearly $60 billion.

Adam Mosseri, the Meta executive tasked with running Instagram, testified in the Los Angeles case last week. He said there is a difference between a clinical addiction to social media and what people refer to in the modern day as being "addicted" to say a TV show. He said social media isn't "clinically" addictive.

The trial, which began last week, is expected to last six weeks. Snapchat and TikTok were also originally defendants in the case but settled with the plaintiff shortly before the trial began. The details of the settlements weren't disclosed, and both remain defendants in the other lawsuits.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Write to Meghan Bobrowsky at meghan.bobrowsky@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 18, 2026 14:15 ET (19:15 GMT)

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