Zuckerberg says he went to Tim Cook to discuss ‘wellbeing of teens and kids’

Source: 9to5Mac

Background

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified this week in what’s viewed as a landmark court case around the mental‑health impact of social media. As part of that testimony, Zuckerberg revealed that he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to talk about the “wellbeing of teens and kids.”

The trial was brought by New Mexico against Meta, alleging that the company “failed to safeguard apps like Facebook and Instagram from online predators who targeted child users,” as explained by CNBC here.

Originally filed in 2023, the suit claims that Meta “steered and connected users — including children — to sexually explicit, exploitative and child‑sex‑abuse material and facilitated human trafficking” within the state.

“What we are really alleging is that Meta has created a dangerous product, a product that enables not only the targeting of children, but the exploitation of children in virtual spaces and in the real world,” Torrez told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday.

The trial is one of several significant cases involving Meta this year that could have major repercussions on the company and the broader social‑media industry. Experts have likened the lawsuits to those brought against “Big Tobacco” in the 1990s, due to the alleged harm the products can have on users and the efforts by tobacco companies to mislead the public about negative effects.

Zuckerberg’s Email to Cook

As reported by CNBC, defense lawyers asked Zuckerberg about an email exchange between him and Cook from February 2018.

“I thought there were opportunities that our company and Apple could be doing and I wanted to talk to Tim about that,” Zuckerberg explained. “I care about the wellbeing of teens and kids who are using our services,” he said when characterizing the content of the email.

No additional details about the exchange have been released.

Relationship Context

Cook and Zuckerberg are widely believed to have a contentious relationship, though the February 2018 exchange predates some of the more public back‑and‑forth. The public spat between the two largely began in March 2018, when Cook made multiple public comments about Facebook’s privacy controversies see here and here.

This is the second time Cook’s name has surfaced in the court case. In an email unearthed earlier this month, Zuckerberg suggested that Meta should conduct less research into how its platforms harm users, bizarrely citing Apple as a model to follow source.

Age‑Verification Debate

Meta and Apple largely disagree on how app age verification should be handled:

• Meta’s stance: Age verification should be the responsibility of platform owners like Apple and Google, not social‑media companies see analysis.
• Apple’s stance: Responsibility for age verification should largely fall to developers, with the right place to address it being on a per‑app level rather than the marketplace level see Apple’s position.