Former Meta engineering director Arturo Béjar testified on August 19, 2026, that CEO Mark Zuckerberg fostered a culture that prioritized growth and engagement over child safety on Facebook and Instagram4. The testimony came on the second day of a landmark trial in which a bipartisan coalition of U.S. states accuses Meta of intentionally designing its platforms to addict children1,6.
Vector Wire covered the trial's opening on August 18, when state attorneys general presented opening arguments alleging Meta deliberately sought to hook young users in pursuit of profit[3]. Meta rejected the accusations.
Béjar's testimony adds an insider dimension to the states' case. As a former engineering director at Meta, his account that Zuckerberg personally set the tone — elevating growth metrics above safety concerns — goes to the core of the plaintiffs' theory: that Meta's product decisions were not negligent oversights but deliberate corporate choices.
The trial involves a coalition of 29 states that filed the lawsuit in 202310. Four lead states — California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey — are driving the case. The states are seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties and changes to how Meta does business. One report characterized the potential fine exposure as exceeding one trillion dollars, with possible mandated redesigns of Facebook and Instagram2.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez told CNBC the consequences could be "astronomical," describing his state's earlier case against Meta as a blueprint for the broader coalition9. California Attorney General Rob Bonta is co-leading the trial, which is being heard in Oakland's federal courthouse after a jury was seated the prior week.
Meta lost a last-minute bid to pause the trial before it began11. Separately, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled on August 10, 2026, that thousands of additional social media addiction lawsuits targeting Meta, ByteDance's TikTok, and other platforms can proceed12. Several tech companies have attempted to eliminate those lawsuits over a years-long process.
District Judge Rogers adopted a hybrid structure for the multi-week trial, after the bipartisan coalition worked to present a unified case8.
Vanderbilt Law School professor Rebecca Haw Allensworth said on CNBC that the business model of social media is at stake in the trial3.
ANALYSIS Béjar's testimony transforms the trial dynamic from a regulatory dispute over product design into a question of executive accountability, placing Zuckerberg's personal decision-making at the center of the states' case. The concurrent appeals court ruling allowing thousands of additional lawsuits to proceed means Meta faces compounding legal exposure beyond this single trial.