🔥 Zuck in the Hot Seat, Meta's $65M Election Play

This week in The Dispatch: What Mark Zuckerberg told the court; Meta spends big in elections; NJ steps up on child safety

The Tech Oversight Project

25 Feb 2026 — 6 min read

Welcome back to The Dispatch from The Tech Oversight Project, your weekly updates on all things tech accountability. Follow us on Twitter at @Tech_Oversight and @techoversight.bsky.social on Bluesky.

Z-DAY – HOW IT PLAYED: Last week, Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in the landmark social media addiction trial underway in California. Needless to say, it was an historic moment that marked the first time a Big Tech CEO has had to face a jury to answer for his companies’ many child safety failures.

Zuckerberg faces intensifying scrutiny for knowingly harming children with the product design of his platforms as newly unsealed court exhibits set the stage for some tough questions. Some of the lowlights that came out in cross-ex:

META BUILT A MACHINE THAT EXPLOITED KIDS FOR PROFIT: Lawyers showed evidence that Meta tracked millions of under-13 users on Instagram and discussed strategies to grow engagement among teens.
ZUCK KNEW HIS PRODUCTS WERE DANGEROUS: Zuckerberg confirmed he had personally heard from people who say they were harmed by Instagram or Facebook use, even though he and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri both say the company’s products are not addictive.
META IGNORED ITS OWN SAFETY WARNINGS: 18 out of 18 of Meta’s own experts agreed Instagram should prohibit beauty filters that promote body dysmorphia and eating disorders for young users, but the company did nothing.
META DOCS CONTRADICT ZUCK’S PUBLIC STATEMENTS: Meta research surfaced showing teens stayed on Instagram longer even though they “hated it” while execs pushed employees to increase metrics for time spent online— even though Zuck told Congress the company doesn’t press its employees to get teens hooked.
INSTAGRAM HIT HARD OVER UNDERAGE USERS: Execs’ excuses didn’t pass the smell test – “You expect a nine-year-old to read all of the fine print? That’s your basis for swearing under oath that children under 13 are not allowed?,” as one lawyer asked.
ZUCK ADMITTED GROWTH TRUMPS ALL: Under intense questioning, Zuckerberg acknowledged Meta’s stock price depends on continuous user growth — which is why his team ignored internal warnings about their product’s dangers.
META’S OWN RESEARCH UNDERCUTS THE ‘BLAME PARENTS’ LINE: Meta has repeatedly argued that it’s the job of parents to protect their kids from its dangerous products, but Meta itself found from its own internal research that parental supervision doesn’t work to curb teens’ compulsive social media use.

As Zuckerberg bobbed and weaved before the jury, parents stood together outside the courthouse, fighting for accountability that’s been too long delayed – and spoke out across the country about the urgent need for action to hold Big Tech CEOs including Zuck accountable.

Bereaved Maryland father Todd Minor Sr.’s message to Zuckerberg & other Big Tech CEOs: “You don’t even allow your children to use your own social media applications. So what does that say? That says that our children are in danger, and that you just didn’t care. You put profits before our children’s safety.”

The bottom line: this is a national outrage. Senator Marsha Blackburn made the case to her colleagues in the wake of Zuckerberg’s testimony, writing in a Washington Post op-ed: “To my fellow legislators, I have one simple question: Will you side with moguls like Mark Zuckerberg? Or will you side with the 86 percent of Americans who are demanding we stand up to Big Tech for preying on our children?”

We couldn’t agree more. The Tech Oversight Project's Sacha Haworth had this to say: “Congress needs to act now to hold Big Tech accountable and stop CEOs like Zuckerberg from exploiting and hurting young people. They should start by following through on promises made to grieving parents and passing the bipartisan Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act into law.”

⚡ SPLITSCREEN: Zuckerberg takes the stand in Social Media Addiction Trials, Meta Announces $65M to Kill Off Chatbot Protections for Kids: Another day, another super PAC: Meta is plowing an additional $65 million into state-level elections this year to elect AI-friendly lawmakers. In the largest election spending push in Meta’s history, the company has quickly seeded four new super PACs, playing both sides with two brand new ones supporting Republican and Democratic picks. They’re starting in Texas and Illinois, where AI data center controversies and regulatory fights are already front and center.

Their mission: Stop state regulations dead in their tracks before they can slow the company’s supersonic-speed AI expansion. Their playbook: Divide, spend, influence.

TOP’s Sacha Haworth: “This is not a one-off PR stunt. It’s a strategic escalation from quiet lobbying to overt electoral influence. For a company that famously avoided big political bets in the past, this shift says all you need to know: when the stakes are your bottom line and your future business model, you stop worrying about optics and start buying outcomes.”

TIME’s cover story this week dives deep on the A.I. backlash, noting that the stakes are that much clearer when Big Tech comes to your backyard: “As physical manifestations of the industry’s heedlessness, the data centers powering AI systems have become the focus of protests.”

The article profiled nine very different figures in this fight, unified by a common thread as “strategists on the left and right alike warn that a backlash is coming.”

NJ ONLINE SAFETY BILL ADVANCES: In New Jersey, child safety advocates celebrated as legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Andrea Katz that will strengthen online protections for kids and increase accountability for social media platforms easily cleared its first hurdle. TOP’s Sacha Haworth: “Governor Sherrill has shown real leadership by making kids' online safety a priority from day one, and Assemblywoman Katz’s legislative package delivers on that commitment with exactly the kind of bold, design-centered approach that holds companies accountable and puts kids' safety first.”

CSAM LAWSUITS: West Virginia’s AG JB McCuskey is suing Apple for allowing child sexual abuse material to spread via iCloud. Also this week, authorities in Spain just opened a criminal investigation into Meta, X, and Tiktok over AI-generated CSAM content. It’s more of the same as tech giants continue turning a blind eye to online crimes – a strategy that continues to actively endanger kids.