Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg leaves the Los Angeles Superior Court after testifying in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2026. Wally Skalij/Getty Images
LOS ANGELES—On the most anticipated day yet of a landmark social media addiction trial that began Feb. 9, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Feb. 18 to answer allegations that he engineered his social media platforms to be addictive to children despite knowing the potential harms.
Plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier wasted no time setting the moral tone, opening with the suggestion that there are different ways to deal with vulnerable people—help them, ignore them, or “prey upon them.”
