Instagram teen-safety tools were litigation shield, former worker tells US jury
By Mike Swift ( August 24, 2026, 23:47 GMT | Insight) -- As a US addictive design trial against Meta Platforms in California entered its second week, former Instagram employee George Volichenko told jurors he quit Meta after concluding its teen-wellbeing team partly served to protect the company from lawsuits, and that his team lacked support from Meta's leadership to build effective safeguards. Separately, psychologist Jean Twenge defended her conclusion linking heavy social-media use to teen mental-health harms as Meta challenged her methodology, research and work as a paid paid expert.A former Instagram employee who worked on teen-safety tools told a US jury in California Monday that he quit Meta Platforms in 2023 after concluding his team existed partly to protect the company from litigation, rather than solely to protect teens....
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