The executive that helped build Meta’s ad machine is trying to expose it.

On Thursday, he told a California jury it incentivized drawing more and more users, including teens, onto Facebook and Instagram – despite the risks. .
Boland’s testimony came a day after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in a case over whether Meta and YouTube are liable for allegedly harming a young woman’s mental health. Boland’s role was to counter this by explaining how Meta makes money, and how that shaped its platforms’ design. Zuckerberg framed Meta’s mission as balancing safety with free expression, not revenue.