I=6
CEO Mark Zuckerberg said teens accounts for only 1% of Meta’s ad revenue and that it’s difficult to enforce Instagram age limits
- Zuckerberg said it has been difficult to identify teens and enforce age limits.
- He pointed out that teens account for just 1% of Meta’s revenue and doesn’t expect it to be "a meaningful thing in the near term.”
- The plaintiff’s lawyer Mark Lanier presented a series of emails, slides and internal messages from Meta employees spanning several years which indicated Meta saw teens as key to its long-term success and that some employees such as Nick Clegg (former policy chief) had concerns about Meta’s child safety policies.
- The ongoing trial named K.G.M. is one of the more than 3,000 of similar lawsuits facing Meta but is seen as important since it will inform the outcome of other cases.
Assessment
In my opinion, Zuckerberg’s testimony confirmed that the company hasn’t done well in enforcing its child safety policies and increases the probability that it may lose a number of these cases. However, what’s more important is the amount of settlement that Meta will incur and potential structural changes to the platform. For now, I think (confidence level: 60%) the financial impact may not be more than $5 billion (based on the number of cases and precedents) but insights from the trials could materially change my estimate.