The compensation of Instagram head Adam Mosseri was scrutinized during a pivotal social media addiction lawsuit against its parent firm, Meta, in a Los Angeles court on Wednesday.
According to multiple news sources at the trial, Mosseri, who has been in charge of Instagram since 2016, testified that his annual salary is approximately $900,000 and that he gets performance bonuses which can reach as high as half his salary. He also receives equity compensation that fluctuates each year but has amounted to “tens of millions of dollars,” and has exceeded $20 million in some years, he stated.
The plaintiff, a 20-year-old identified as “KGM” or “Kaley,” alleges she developed mental health problems due to an addiction to social media. The topic of Mosseri’s pay arose when her attorney, Mark Lanier, questioned if there was a link between his compensation and his strategic decisions for the company’s expansion—specifically, whether promoting social media addiction was financially rewarded. Lanier also referenced comments Mosseri made on a podcast regarding Instagram’s addictive nature, though the specific podcast was not identified. Mosseri clarified that he probably used the term too informally, as people often do.
Mosseri firmly rejected the accusation that Instagram is addictive and deliberately targets teenagers for profit, arguing that the company earns the least revenue from teens since they lack significant disposable income compared to other age groups.
He emphasized a crucial distinction between “clinical addiction” and “problematic” usage, while also noting multiple times that he is not a medical expert.
“I believe protecting minors in the long run is good for profit and business,” Mosseri stated under questioning by Meta’s attorneys. However, that was not the only challenge Mosseri faced.
Internal documents exposed
Lanier presented the court with internal Meta documents indicating that executives were aware that certain filters could be damaging to young women, but believed that removing them would hurt the company’s competitive standing.
“We are talking about encouraging young girls into body dysmorphia,” one email from a Meta executive stated. A separate email from an executive noted that prohibiting filters would “limit our ability to be competitive in Asian markets (including India).”
Mosseri said that Instagram initially planned to ban all filters that alter facial features, but later reversed that decision.
When Lanier asked if prohibiting appearance-altering filters would have impacted the company’s financial performance, Mosseri replied, “I was never worried about this affecting our stock price,” refuting the suggestion that his pay was tied to product designs that could be detrimental to users.
Meta’s SEC filings provide detailed compensation information only for its named executive officers, like Mark Zuckerberg and a few other top executives; Mosseri is not usually among them, so his precise yearly pay is not itemized in the proxies as the CEO’s is. This makes his court testimony the most detailed disclosure of his compensation to date.
Meta did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment on the trial and Mosseri’s compensation.
Mosseri’s court appearance sets the stage for next week, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to give testimony.