August 25, 2026, 22:36 GMT | Insight
Bad actors trying to post content that violates Meta’s guidelines are similar to computer viruses: they are always evolving and finding new methods for sharing, Tomas Kabbabe, director of data science at
Instagram, told a Tennessee jury Tuesday.
Bad actors trying to post content that violates Meta’s guidelines are similar to computer viruses: they are always evolving and finding new methods for sharing, Tomas Kabbabe, director of data science at Instagram, told a Tennessee jury Tuesday.
“You probably remember when you had computers like your PCs, and there was a virus and an antivirus software, and people will try to attack your computer with viruses, and then you'd have to update the antivirus,” Kabbabe said. “These are like viruses; they find ways of getting around [prohibitions against] this content. It doesn't mean that we didn't make it safe. It's just that there are new vectors of attack. So just because at some point there is an attack, it doesn't mean that it was launched without safety.”
Kabbabe was responding to questions from Thomas Cartmell, a lawyer representing the state, about why Meta’s Reels feature was suggested as “sexualized media” to teens shortly after the product was publicly introduced. Kabbabe’s testimony Tuesday focused on how the company continually tested its platform to ensure it was doing its best to promote positive content people wanted to see and engage with.
Kabbabe testified as Meta defends against claims by the state of Tennessee that the company intentionally designed Instagram to be addictive for young people and, in so doing, violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act (see
here). Meta began its defense last week as the trial nears the one-month mark.
Why, if these issues were like viruses, did Meta not warn the public about the “problems with Instagram's recommendation algorithm recommending sexual content to teens, and this 'pedophile' issue that we've been discussing?” Cartmell asked.
“I'm not part of the comms team, so I don't know everything that has been published. But we have published externally multiple times things that we've done to take down all of that content, and very clear descriptions of what our recommendation guidelines are, what we accept and what we don't. Very clear about the fact that anything that you post, if it goes against our guidance, we're going to delete it,” Kabbabe said.
Cartmell also shared messages of Kabbabe’s team discussing lingering issues with teens being served sexualized content.
“To be clear again, this is something that broke that was affecting groups of new teen users. This wasn't something that was happening in a generalized way — [but] again, even if it's happening to just one new user, we want to address that,” Kabbabe said.
Meta’s second witness of the day, Bryce Bartlett, vice president for analytics and research, also testified that Meta is continually testing its products to ensure they are working for consumers.
“There are things that develop or change over time. Sometimes they're creative ways people try to avoid the community standards, so it's important for us to continually stress test it on the one hand. On the other hand, we also continue to update our sort of products and services. And when we do those new things, it's important for us to stress test to make sure that they work,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett also highlighted how Meta has funded research into youth wellbeing online. It’s funding research through grant money provided to the Center for Open Science, which has studies underway at
Stanford University,
Princeton University and others, he said.
Meta has also given researchers data to better understand the issue, he said. A research study is currently underway at Oxford University using data provided by Meta, he said.
“Meta has a commitment to research, and this is a commitment to transparency for research ... beyond other competitor tech companies,” Bartlett said.
—MLex viewed the trial on Courtroom View Network.
Please email editors@mlex.com to contact the editorial staff regarding this story, or to submit the names of lawyers and advisers.
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