Instagram chief Adam Mosseri testified on Tuesday during a social media addiction trial that he doesn't direct employees to withhold information from him that could pose potential legal liabilities.
"I'm not trying to encourage my team to hide anything," Mosseri said, in his first day of testimony at a federal courthouse in Oakland, California. He was responding to questioning from trial attorney Jason Slothouber with the Colorado Attorney General's office.
Slothouber asked Mosseri if he was aware that Meta attorneys may have asked the company's internal staff not to share information related to safety research for kids under 13 and teen mental health concerns. Mosseri said he "wouldn't be surprised" if Meta lawyers reviewed child-related safety research for complicated legal and policy reasons, but would be taken aback if the motivations for doing so were to provide cover in case of potential litigation and to mislead the public.
Opening arguments started last week in the landmark trial against Meta that's being co-led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the AGs from Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky. They represent a bipartisan group of 29 AGs in a combined case.
The AG coalition alleges that Meta violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, and consumer protection statutes, and are seeking penalties that could reach $200 billion. Central to their claims are allegations that Meta executives like Mosseri and CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly misrepresented certain child-safety features and related internal research to the public. Meta has denied the allegations.
During Mosseri's testimony, which kicked off late in the day, the Instagram head acknowledged that the company curbed the number of employees who could access certain internal research following whistleblower Frances Haugen's 2021 leaking of corporate documents related to children and teen mental health. Mosseri said Meta made the policy changes because "we don't want anything to be taken out of context," similar to what executives say happened with the leaked documents, published by the Wall Street Journal as part of The Facebook Files series.
Mosseri said the plaintiff lawyers are incorrect in suggesting that Meta also reduced the number of researchers studying youth mental health harms after Haugen's leaks.
"I disagree with that characterization," Mosseri said. "I don't think the team was smaller, it was just centralized."
Mosseri's testimony will continue on Wednesday.
WATCH: Meta is facing its biggest trial yet, and its future hangs in the balance.
