Feb. 20, 2026

"RAPISTS SCRAWLED ON THE DOOR: ALEXANDER BROTHERS' SEX TRAFFICKING HORROR & ZUCKERBERG GRILLED ON INSTAGRAM'S CHILD ADDICTION MACHINE"

"RAPISTS SCRAWLED ON THE DOOR: ALEXANDER BROTHERS' SEX TRAFFICKING HORROR & ZUCKERBERG GRILLED ON INSTAGRAM'S CHILD ADDICTION MACHINE"
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Reid Carter takes a deep dive into the two biggest trials in America. The Alexander brothers sex trafficking trial enters a 10-day break after three weeks of devastating testimony - nine women described being drugged and raped, jurors saw "Rapists!" scrawled in eyeliner on a door, texts revealed "twin DP" boasts and "panty dropper pills," and a juror was dismissed for deciding early. Diddy's former defense team now represents the brothers. In Los Angeles, Mark Zuckerberg testified before a jury for the first time - confronted with internal documents showing 4 million children under 13 on Instagram. Parents slept on courthouse steps for seats.

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media, Good morning, I'm read Carter Friday, February twentieth,

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twenty twenty six. Two trials dominating the news cycle right now,

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Both massive, both potentially historic. Let me catch you up Manhattan.

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The Alexander Brothers sex trafficking trial. Three brothers Tal thirty

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nine and Twins or In and a Lawn thirty eight,

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charged with masterminding a decade long conspiracy to drug and

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rape women using their wealth, luxury, real estate, empire, and

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party scene connections. Three weeks of testimony before Judge Valerie Caproni,

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nine alleged victims took the stand, Jurors saw photographs of

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the word rapists scrawled in eyeliner on a door at

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a Hampton's mansion, text messages where one brother boasted about

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twin DP being the special on the menu, another text

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telling a friend to throw some pante dropper pills in

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the dishes. A juror was dismissed for reaching a verdict

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before the trial was over. The trial is on a

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ten day break. Resumes February twenty fourth. Today we're doing

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a comprehensive recap of what the jury has seen so far.

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Los Angeles, Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg walked into a courtroom and

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testified before a jury for the first time in his career.

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The question did Meta deliberately design Instagram to addict children

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and destroy their mental health? Internal documents showed over four

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million users under thirteen on a platform that requires you

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to be thirteen to join. Instagram's own head Adam Musseri,

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testified last week that he doesn't believe social media addiction exists.

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Parents who lost children to social media slept on the

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courthouse steps to get seats. A judge threatened contempt over

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someone wearing Meta's ab smart glasses in the courtroom. I'm Reed,

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Carter today. Two trials that could reshape how we think

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about power, wealth, and corporate accountability in America. This is

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celebrity trials. Let's start in Manhattan, Southern District of New York,

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United States. Versus Ailon Alexander Orin Alexander and Tal Alexander.

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Before their arrests in December twenty twenty four, Oran and

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Tal Alexander were luxury real estate titans Miami born sold

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some of America's most expensive properties penthouse deals, celebrity clients,

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multimillion dollar commissions, A Lawn worked at a private security

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firm owned by the family. Between them, the brothers lived

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the kind of life most people only see on reality television. Mansions, yachts,

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exclusive parties, Hampton's weekends, ski trips in Aspen, cruise ships

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to the Bahamas. Prosecutors say all of it was a

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hunting ground. The indictment twelve counts conspiracy to commit sex trafficking,

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sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, inducement to travel,

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to engage in unlawful sexual activity, sexual abuse by physical incapacitation,

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sexual exploitation of a miner. Eight named victims in the indictment,

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including two who were under age, but prosecutors interviewed more

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than sixty women who reported being raped or sexually assaulted

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by at least one of the brothers. Sixty women. Let

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that sink in. The brothers hired heavy hitters for their defense.

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Orrin tapped Mark Agnifilo and Tenny Garrigos, the same attorneys

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who represented Sean Ditty Combs in his federal sex trafficking

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trial last year. The team that got Ditty acquitted on

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sex trafficking and racketeering. Now they're trying to do the

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same for the Alexander brothers. They also retained Judah Engelmeyer,

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the public relations strategist who previously represented Harvey Weinstein. The

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defense argument boils down to this, These weren't traffickers. These

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were single men who liked to party, who pursued women

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at nightclubs and bars, who hooked up. That's not trafficking,

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that's dating. Teeny Geragos told the jury that the government

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is trying to turn their life of partying into one

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of the most serious crimes we have. Deanna Paul, representing Tal,

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acknowledged her client was a womanizer, but said there's no

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evidence he acted unlawfully. Now, let me tell you what

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the jury has heard over three weeks, because it doesn't

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sound like dating. Week one. The prosecution's first witness was

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a woman testifying under the pseudonym Katie Moore. She described

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meeting the brothers at a New York City nightclub called Provocateur,

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accepted a drink from someone in their group. Her body

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immediately started swaying. Not gradual, not like getting drunk, sudden,

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like a switch being flipped, loss of control, confusion, darkness.

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Moore woke up naked on a bed with Alon standing

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over her, also naked. She had no idea what had happened,

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tried to get out of bed, Ailon kept pushing her

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back down. She was thirty four years old when she

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told the jury, I'm thirty four years old now, and

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I know who I am, and I want someone held

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accountable for what was done to me. Another woman testifying

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under the pseudonym Amelia Rosen, was shown a video of

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her own alleged rape, a video she'd never seen before,

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found on a backup of Orn's computer, sent the same

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night it was captured. She was seventeen years old in

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the video, had no memory of the encounter or the recording,

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was contacted by the government and shown what had been

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done to her. The video was played privately for individual

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jury members. That's not dating, that's not hooking up. That's

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a video of an unconscious seventeen year old found on

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a man's hard drive. Week two more witnesses, more alleged victims,

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and then the messages. Prosecutors unveiled a trove of texts, emails,

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and group chats pulled from the brother's phones and computers.

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The brother's own words words, let me read you some

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of what the jury saw. After a three day party

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cruise from Miami to the Bahamas in January twenty twelve,

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Alon texted a friend, biggest fuck fest I've ever seen

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twin DP was the special on the menu, DP standing

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for double penetration, bragging about it to a friend in writing.

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In a separate exchange after the same cruise, Alon wrote

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that he didn't sleep once during the trip because he

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was just hunting the whole time, said his friend Dylan

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brought a camera and filmed a lot. When the friend

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asked if Dylan had slept with anyone, Alon responded, he's

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not as aggressive as Orn and I. The friend remarked

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that few people are Elon replied, that's true hunting. That's

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the word he used, hunting. A woman testifying under the

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pseudonym Ronda Stone, described being on that same cruise. Said

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she approached the twins to buy MDMA during a late

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night DJ set, followed them back to their cabin, accepted

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a mixed drink, blacked out almost immediately. When she regained consciousness,

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one of the brothers was on top of her, raping her,

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while the other was having sex with another woman in

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the next bed. She watched helplessly as they went back

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and forth, then blacked out again. Prosecutors also found a

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note on Oran's iCloud account functioned like a diary of

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the creuse bullet pointed entries for each day. Most were redacted.

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One surviving entry from Saturday Night SAT Late night thick blonde.

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That's how he cataloged women, two words and a physical

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descriptor in a bullet pointed list. More messages emerged in

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September twenty eleven. A lawn texted about an upcoming party,

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telling someone to throw some panty dropper pills in the

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dishes sent to our table. Other exchanges referenced g HB, qualudes, ambion, ketamine,

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and xanax, all drugs that can cause loss of motor

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function in paired consciousness and memory loss, exactly what multiple

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women described experiencing. The defense called some of the messages

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crude jokes. The prosecution's medical expert, doctor Stacey Hale, testified

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that g HB is useful to commit sexual assault because

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its colorless, odorless, and virtually tasteless. Week three, the testimony

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got worse. Meelen Garrett took the stand and accused Alan

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of drugging and raping her during a ski trip in Aspen, Colorado,

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in January twenty seventeen. She was seventeen, said Alan spotted

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her at the now shuttered Bootsy Bellows Club, invited her

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and two friends to their table, handed her drinks. Her

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head started feeling really heavy, could barely hold it up.

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The twins invited the girls to what they described as

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an after party, took them to an empty hotel room

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with two beds. Alan allegedly assaulted Garrett in the bathroom.

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Her friend, testifying as Katie Brown, set along, then got

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into bed with her and put his hand down her pants.

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She removed his hand and left with Garrett. Judge Caproni

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noted that the jury appeared to be hanging on to

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Garrett's every word. Then came Isa Brooks, the testimony that

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capped the third week. Brooks was sixteen years old, days

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before her seventeenth birthday when she says she and a

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school friend skipped their senior prom to go to a

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Hampton's party invited by a club promoter named Matt Lippman,

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who counted the Alexander Brothers among his clients. Party bus

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from Times Square to East Hampton Nightclub, then a rented mansion.

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The next morning, Brooks noticed the house was emptier. Girls

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who'd been there the night before were gone. Lipmann told

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her they hadn't made the cut. They'd been sent away. Brooks,

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the sixteen year old, almost felt special to have been selected.

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Then she accepted a drink from a friend of the

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Alexanders while in a hot tub, started feeling woozy and

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limp headed inside. Tal allegedly followed her to a bedroom

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started kissing her. Her body felt heavy, heart fluttering, couldn't stand.

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Then Tal allegedly said five words that will stay with

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the jury. My brother is going to join us. Now,

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a lawn and two other men entered. What followed Brooks

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can only recall in flashes, men taking turns holding her down,

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raping her, saying degrading things. She told them to stop,

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too weak to fight back. I was terrified, Brooks told

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the court, through tears and increasing violence, both in what

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they were saying and how they were raping me. I

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was just wondering why it felt like they hated me.

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She was sixteen years old. At a party she went

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to instead of prom being raped by multiple men while

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she could barely move. Eventually, she mustered enough strength to

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kick one of the men. He backed away a lawn

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and two others left. Tal stayed behind allegedly told her

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don't be mad at me. Don't be mad at me,

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after allegedly participating in the gang rape of a sixteen

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year old girl, don't be mad at me. Later that

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same evening, Brooks walked past a bedroom and saw a

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girl lying in a green bikini with a bunch of

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guys on top of her. Another woman, Avishon Bognude, who

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works at the United Nations, confronted the group, crying out

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I work for the UN and I know what you're

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doing or an Alexander allegedly slammed the door in her face.

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Bog Nude testified separately, said she heard a woman screaming

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for help over and over, asking them to stop. Said

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the men moaned loudly over the woman's cries, while Bognude

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described those sex noises. The brother's father, Shlomy Alexander, appeared

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to be smirking in the gallery, smirking while a witness

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described his son's allegedly raping a screaming woman. Bognoud fled

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in a taxi that night, but before she left, she

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scrawled messages on the homes door and wall eyeliner rapists,

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you need to apologize. Photographs of that graffiti were recovered

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from Tal Alexander's hard drive and shown to the jury.

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I hope that someday this could be used as evidence,

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boge Nude said tearfully. The defense pushed back. Cross examined

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Brooks about photos showing her celebrating her birthday days later,

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asked why she stayed overnight at another Hampton's home where

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Tal was present, why she didn't contact police, why she

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didn't tell her parents. I was scared to rock the boat,

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Brooks said, I was scared that I would get in trouble.

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She was sixteen, still in school, still a child. In

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twenty twenty, Brooks called East Hampton Police, an officer expressed

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frustration over gaps in her memory. She hung up, called

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the Manhattan DA's office, left a voicemail. Nobody called back.

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She finally reported to the FBI in twenty twenty four,

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after reading about other women coming forward. I've been haunted

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by this for seventeen years, Brooks said, I am horrified

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that there have been others. And then there was the juror.

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Mid trial, Judge Caproni dismissed a male juror, who admitted

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he'd already decided on a verdict before the case was over,

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unclear which way he was leaning. The jury now stands

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at seven women and five men. Here's the pattern across

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three weeks of testimony. Women meet the brothers at clubs, parties,

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or through dating apps. They're invited to luxury destinations Hampton's mansions,

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Aspen ski trips, Bahama's cruises. They're offered drinks, they black out,

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they wake up being raped, or they don't wake up

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at all and find out later from video evidence. The

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brothers have pleaded not guilty to all charges. They've been

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held without bail since December twenty twenty four. Their parents

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sit in the gallery every day. Their pr strategist previously

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represented Harvey Weinstein. Their defense attorneys previously represented Diddy. If convicted,

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each brother faces fifteen years to life in prison. Trial

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resumes February twenty fourth. More witnesses expected, more evidence, More

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testimony from women who say three wealthy brothers used their

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money and status to turn luxury experiences into hunting grounds.

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Make it make sense. We'll be right back with Mark

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Zuckerberg on the witness stand. Four million children under thirteen

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on Instagram, internal documents comparing the platform to a casino,

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and a judge threatening contempt over AI smartglasses in the courtroom.

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Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm reed, Carter, Los Angeles,

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Los Angeles Superior Court, Wednesday, February eighteenth, twenty twenty six.

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Mark Zuckerberg walked through the front doors of the courthouse

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at eight thirty am, past a swarm of media, past

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parents holding photographs of children they say were killed by

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social media, Past families who had flown in from across

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the country and slept on the courthouse steps to guarantee

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a seat. Zuckerberg did not respond when a reporter asked

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what his message would be to those parents. This is

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the landmark trial experts are calling social media's Big Tobacco moment.

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The question before the jury are social media platforms defective products?

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Engineered to exploit vulnerabilities in young people's brains. The plaintiff

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is a twenty year old woman identified only by her

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initials KGM. Her real first name is Kayley. She claims

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she started using YouTube at age six, Instagram at age nine.

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By age sixteen, she was spending more than sixteen hours

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a day on Instagram. She alleges the platforms addicted her,

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exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts, and destroyed her mental health,

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not by accident, by design deliberate choices made by companies

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that wanted children hook to boost profits. The lawsuit was

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originally filed against four companies Meta, Google's YouTube, TikTok and Snap.

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TikTok and Snap settled before trial for undisclosed sums. Meta

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and YouTube are the remaining defendants. This is a Bellweather trial,

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meaning its outcome could determine how more than one thousand,

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five hundred similar lawsuits against social media companies play out.

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If Kayley wins, the floodgates open settlements, platform changes, potentially

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billions in damages. If the companies win, every other family

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suing faces an uphill battle. The stakes are enormous, and

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on Wednesday, the man who built the machine took the stand.

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Mark Zuckerberg, forty one years old, CEO and controlling shareholder

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of Meta Platforms net worth fluctuating somewhere north of two

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hundred billion dollars. The man who created Facebook in a

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Harvard dorm room and turned it into one of the

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most powerful companies in human history, who bought Instagram for

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one billion dollars in twenty twelve, who now oversees platforms

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used by billions of people worldwide, including millions of children.

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He's testified before Congress, apologized to grieving parents at a

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Senate hearing, But Wednesday marked the first time Zuckerberg has

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ever answered questions about child safety in front of a

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jury and juries are different from congressional committees. Juries deliver verdicts,

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Juries award damages, Juries hold people accountable. Plaintiff's attorney, Mark

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Lanier came prepared. He'd already laid the groundwork in his

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opening statement, telling jurors the case was as easy as

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ABC standing for addicting the brains of children, called Meta

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and Google, two of the richest corporations in history that

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have engineered addiction in children's brains. Showed internal emails where

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a Meta employee said Instagram is like a drug and

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employees are basically pushers. Showed internal Google documents that compared

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some company products to a casino. On Wednesday, Lanier went

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after Zuckerberg on multiple fronts. First, underage users, Instagram requires

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you to be thirteen to create an account. That's the rule.

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Here's the reality. Lanier presented an internal meta document from

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twenty fifteen that estimated over four million Instagram users were

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under thirteen, representing roughly thirty percent of all ten to

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twelve year olds in America, on a platform they weren't

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allowed to use. That meta knew about and did nothing

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meaningful to stop. Zuckerberg's response, some users lie about their

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age when signing up. He said, children under thirteen are

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not allowed on Instagram, but four million of them were there.

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The policy existed on paper, not in practice. Second engagement goals,

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Lanier cited a twenty fifteen email thread in which Zuckerberg

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appeared to highlight improving in g agement metrics as an

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urgent company priority. Evidence from Instagram chief Adam Mussi's testimony

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showed internal goals to push daily user engagement time to

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forty minutes in twenty twenty three and forty six minutes

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by twenty twenty six. More time on the app, more scrolling,

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more content, more addiction. Zuckerberg pushed back, said those were

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internal milestones used to measure against competitors, not evidence of

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trying to addict users. Said, if you do something that's

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not good for people, maybe they'll spend more time short term,

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but if they're not happy with it, they're not going

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to use it over time. That's the defense. We're not

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trying to hook children. We're trying to build a sustainable community.

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If people don't like it, they'll leave, except children don't leave.

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That's the entire point. Children don't have the neurological development

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to recognize when something is exploiting them. Their brains are

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wired for social validation, for likes, for followers, for the

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dopamine hit of a notification. Instagram was designed to deliver

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all of that in an infinite scrollable, algorithmically curated feed

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that never ends. There is no bottom of the page,

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there is no You've seen everything, Just scroll, keep scrolling forever.

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Third beauty filters. Lanier pressed Zuckerberg on Instagram's cosmetic filters

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that altered people's appearance, filters that were temporarily shut down

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after concerns they were promoting unrealistic beauty standards and even

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plastic surgery. Zuckerberg said the company decided to allow them

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in support of free expression, but said Meta shouldn't create

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them ourselves or recommend them free expression. A beauty filter

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that makes a fourteen year old girl's face look like

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a cosmetic surgery. Advertisement is free expression? Got it? Then

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came the moment that crystallized the absurdity of it all.

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A judge had to threaten contempt of court because someone

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on Zuckerberg's security detail was wearing Meta's RayBan Ai smart glasses,

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glasses that can record inside a courtroom where recording is prohibited.

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If you have done that, you must delete that or

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you will be held in contempt of the court. The

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judge said, this is very serious. The CEO of Meta

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showed up to defend his company against charges of harming children,

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and his team walked in wearing the company's own surveillance

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technology in a courtroom where it's illegal. You can't make

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this up. Last week, Instagram had Adam Mussi testified that

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he doesn't believe people can be clinically addicted to social media.

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Said there's a difference between addiction and problematic use. Spending

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more time on Instagram than you feel good about, maintain

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that Instagram works hard to protect young users. Said it's

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not good for the company over the long run to

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make decisions that profit for us but are poor for

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people's well being, not good for the company none, not

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good for children. Not good for the company. That tells

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you everything about how these executives think children's mental health

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is a business consideration, not a moral imperative. Meanwhile, Meta's

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own internal research tells a different story. A study called

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Project mist surveyed a thousand teens in their parents. Two

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major findings. First, children who experienced trauma and stress were

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particularly vulnerable to addiction. Second, parental supervision and controls made

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little impact. Meta knew the kids most likely to get

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hooked were the ones already suffering, and they knew parents

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couldn't stop it. A twenty twenty five study from Meta

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whistleblower Arturo Bihar found that two thirds of Meta's safety

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tools for teens were ineffective. Teen accounts still received recommendations

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for sexual content, nudity, and content about self harm and

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body image. The guardrails don't work. Meta knows the guard

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rails don't work, and they selling the same product Metta's

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defense strategy. This isn't about whether social media is good

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or bad. It's about whether Instagram was a substantial factor

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in Kaylee's mental health struggles. They point to her medical records,

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turbulent home life, emotional abuse, body image issues, bullying, all

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pre dating her social media use. They argue she turned

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to Instagram as a coping mechanism, not that Instagram caused

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her problems. One of Kaylee's mental health providers said in

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a deposition that social media was not the through line

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of her main issues, that her struggles stemmed from interpersonal

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conflicts and relationships. That's the defense. She was already broken.

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We didn't break her. She came to us broken and

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used our product. That's not our fault. But here's what

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the plaintiff's lawyers argue. Meta knew vulnerable children were the

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most susceptible, knew their safety tools didn't work, knew four

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million kids under thirteen were on the platform, knew their

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algorith rhythms fed children content about self harm in eating disorders.

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And they kept optimizing for engagement, kept designing features to

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maximize time spent, kept the infinite scroll going, kept the

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notifications pinging. Because every minute a child spends on Instagram

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as a minute, Meta can sell to advertisers. Matt Bergmann,

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whose law center represents over a thousand plaintiffs in similar suits,

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called Zuckerberg's testimony more than a legal milestone, said families

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have been waiting for this moment, waiting for the CEO

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to sit before a jury under oath and explain why

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the company released a product its own safety teams warned

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was addictive and harmful to children. Over forty state attorneys

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general have filed lawsuits against Meta for harming young people.

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A separate trial in New Mexico is already under way,

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accusing Meta of failing to prevent child sexual exploitation on

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its platforms. TikTok faces lawsuits in more than a dozen states.

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France banned social media for children under fear fifteen, Australia

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bannit for under sixteen. The world is waking up. The

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question is whether American courts will follow. This trial will

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last six to eight weeks. More executives will testify, Kayley

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will take the stand. Experts on both sides will argue

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about addiction, neuroscience, and corporate responsibility. The jury of twelve

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needs nine to agree. If they side with Kaylee, it

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changes everything. Social media companies would face the same kind

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of reckoning that Big Tobacco faced in the nineteen nineties.

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Billions in damages, mandatory platform changes, marketing restrictions, age verification,

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requirements that actually work if they side with Meta, the

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message is clear. Tech companies can design addictive products target children,

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ignore their own safety research, and face no consequences. The

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call is coming from inside the house, and this time

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the house is worth one point six trillion dollars. Mark

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Zuckerberg walked out of that courtroom Wednesday. Parents held photos

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of dead children and watched him leave. He still didn't

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answer the question about what his message would be to them.

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Some questions answer themselves that celebrity trials For Friday, February twentieth,

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twenty twenty six, the Alexander Brothers sex trafficking trial is

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on a ten day break. After three weeks of devastating testimony.

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Nine alleged victims described being drugged and raped. Texts showed

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the brothers boasting about hunting and ordering panti dropper pills.

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A juror was dismissed. Trial resumes February twenty fourth. Each

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brother faces fifteen years to life, and Mark Zuckerberg testified

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before a jury for the first time, Confronted with internal

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documents showing four million children under thirteen on Instagram, goals

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to increase daily engagement time. Safety tools that don't work

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a platform designed to hook the most vulnerable users. The

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trial that could be social media's big tobacco moment continues

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for six to eight more weeks. Power, wealth and the

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question of who pays when the powerful exploit the vulnerable.

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I'm read Carter, see you tomorrow. This is celebrity trials.