Meta is bragging about how its AI keeps people on Instagram, while facing lawsuits over addiction

Meta, the social media giant, has been lauded for its AI-driven algorithms that keep users glued to Instagram, but the company is simultaneously embroiled in lawsuits for allegedly designing addictive recommendations for teens and young adults. The debate over social media addiction has been ongoing, and Meta's use of AI to personalize the Instagram feed has contributed to a significant rise in user engagement.

During its Q2 2026 earnings call, Meta revealed that its latest Reels ranking update, the biggest one yet, led to a 15-basis-point increase in Instagram sessions, indicating a strong correlation between AI-driven content and extended user time on the platform. Furthermore, the number of shares has surged, signifying that the app is effectively surfacing content that users genuinely desire to view.

CFO Susan Li explained that the algorithm focuses on tracking video-watching patterns and recommends similar content, thus maintaining user engagement. She added that Instagram now offers more personalized content than ever before, granting users greater control over their viewing experience. Moreover, the AI algorithm now surfaces newer content to users almost immediately after it's created, with the latest models identifying high-quality Reels the moment they're posted.

Over 50% of the recommended content in users' feeds is less than a day old, a nearly two-fold increase from a year ago. To further improve content classification, Meta deployed its Muse family of large language models (LLMs), which has already benefited all platforms and is now being used to develop next-generation recommendation algorithms for both organic content and targeted advertising.

Despite these advancements, Meta is facing multiple lawsuits from 40 US states, claiming that the company knowingly designs its recommendations to make its platforms addictive to teenagers and young adults, causing mental health issues, anxiety, depression, and social isolation among its most loyal users. The lawsuits allege that, in its pursuit of higher profits, Meta disregarded internal studies showing that Instagram could harm teenagers' mental health.