Former Meta consultant Arturo Béjar's Senate testimony: Meta executives ignored warnings of harms to teens and carefully crafted metrics to downplay the issue
Meta's top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, ignored warnings for years about harms to teens on its platforms such as Instagram …
CNN Brian Fung
Related Coverage
- Transcript: Senate Hearing on Social Media and Teen Mental Health with Former Facebook Engineer Arturo Bejar Tech Policy Press · Justin Hendrix
- Social Media and the Teen Mental Health Crisis Senate Committee on the Judiciary
- Big Tech May Have Met Its Match in Gen Z Bloomberg · Amanda Little
- Meta whistleblower tells Senate the company ‘cannot be trusted with our children’ Engadget · Kris Holt
- Ex-Meta Employee Accuses Company of Ignoring His Warnings on How Instagram Was Harming Teens The Tech Report · Krishi Chowdhary
- Meta whistleblower blasts the company over children's safety Android Headlines · Hamid Ganji
- 'I blew the whistle on Meta, now I won't work again' BBC
- Former Meta employee tells Senate company failed to protect teens' safety Reuters · Katie Paul
- Meta has failed to protect teens online, whistleblower claims Silicon Republic · Leigh Mc Gowran
- A Meta engineer saw his own child face Instagram harassment. Now, he's testifying before Congress Associated Press · Barbara Ortutay
- Second Meta whistleblower testifies about failure to protect teens Computing · Dev Kundaliya
- Ex-Meta Engineer Raises Alarm On Teen Safety, Sparks Legislative Attention Benzinga
- Meta whistleblower testimony will push US closer to an online safety bill SiliconANGLE · James Farrell
- Sen. Graham Pledges to Refund Tech Contributions Amid Facebook Whistleblower Testimony NTD · Savannah Pointer
- Meta failed to address harm to teens, whistleblower testifies as Senators vow action WKMS · Dara Kerr
- Meta whistleblower warned executives about social media's dangerous effects on young teens. They ignored him Deseret News · Gitanjali Poonia
- Ex-Meta employee says his warnings of Instagram's harm to teens were ignored Associated Press
- Meta hearing raises child safety concerns The Hill · Sylvan Lane
- Former Meta staffer's allegations renew calls for kids online safety bill The Hill · Rebecca Klar
- Meta whistleblower testimony adds fuel to push for online kids safety bill The Record · Suzanne Smalley
- Meta failed to act to protect teens, second whistleblower testifies CNBC · Lauren Feiner
- Zuckerberg, Meta execs ignored warnings about harmful content on social media platforms, whistleblower tells Congress Courthouse News Service · Benjamin S. Weiss
- Former Facebook staffer to speak out in hopes of jolting Congress Washington Post
- Another Whistleblower Testifies on Facebook's Threats to Kids' Privacy Public Citizen
- Meta whistleblower testifies that executives failed to react to teenage struggles Washington Examiner · Christopher Hutton
- Former Meta engineer testifies before Congress on Instagram's harms to teens Tech Xplore · Barbara Ortutay
- CT senator releases document provided by Meta whistleblower. Read it here. Hartford Courant · Helen I. Bennett
Discussion
-
@senatorbennet
Senator Michael Bennet
on threads
Instead of establishing effective safeguards to protect our kids, Meta did nothing. This is unacceptable. Big Tech will always put their bottom line before our children's safety. We need a dedicated agency to protect Americans from these platforms.
-
@b_fung
Brian Fung
on threads
Another Meta whistleblower alleged in Senate testimony today that the company has ignored or downplayed internal warnings about mental health harms linked to Instagram. Some highlights: https://www.cnn.com/...
-
@hawleymo
Josh Hawley
on x
Mark Zuckerberg ignored reports that young girls were being sexually propositioned on Instagram, yet had plenty of time to collude with the Biden Administration to censor Americans. Priorities. [video]
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
6/ Try reporting a predator account and see if @instagram acts on it, they won't. They claim automated systems will keep kids safe, yet they don't detect the vast majority of exploitative content.
-
@zamaan_qureshi
Zamaan Qureshi
on x
Mark Zuckerberg; did he reply to you? He did not reply. Did he meet with you? He did not meet with me.
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
26/ How many kids have to get sick from batch of ice cream before we investigate? Right now @instagram is standing next to kids while they have bad experiences - they could act in that moment, immediately.
-
@bostonjoan
Joan Donovan, PhD
on x
Facebook whistleblower Arturo Bajer was sworn in and he lays out exactly what he knew in October 2021. He found that 1 in 8 kids experienced unwanted sexual advances over 7 days on the platform. This should mean the end of DMs, no?
-
@jason_kint
Jason Kint
on x
Posting a few exchanges that stood out to me at the Facebook/Instagram whistleblower hearing this morning before a packed bipartisan Senate sbcmte. Establishing knowledge by Sandberg and Zuckerberg will be key to lawsuit filed by state attorneys general. /1 [video]
-
@jason_kint
Jason Kint
on x
This exchange blew me away and I consider must-watch until the end. The emotion was raw to me knowing the effects of the platform that have gone unaddressed. /2 [video]
-
@zamaan_qureshi
Zamaan Qureshi
on x
Béjar tells Sen. Blackburn that 24 hour response times were normal from executives. But when he sent his email to executives outlining Instagram's harms to teens, Mark Zuckerberg never wrote back.
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
@Meta @instagram 5/ Instagram is the largest directory of children that has existed in history. A directory with pictures that will directly connect you with children you don't know.
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
20/ 13 year olds are afraid to report bad behavior because they're afraid of getting other people in trouble. @instagram has known this for ten years. You have to proactively offer help and resources when children are exposed to harm.
-
@aaschapiro
Avi Asher-Schapiro
on x
A key detail from ex-Meta engineer Arturo Béjar's Congressional testimony: he says Instagram is aware that unwanted sexual advances directed at minors are a major category of abuse, but that the company doesn't have a dedicated flagging mechanism. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov…
-
@hawleymo
Josh Hawley
on x
While Facebook was ignoring child sex abuse material on their platform, they were gleefully censoring speech on Covid and school board meetings at the behest of the Biden Administration. Priorities. [video]
-
@zamaan_qureshi
Zamaan Qureshi
on x
Wow. Just wow. An unsealed version of the Massachusetts complaint against Instagram dropped: Nick Clegg (and others) repeatedly raised flags inside Meta that the company was underinvesting in teen well-being areas. “Zuckerberg ignored Clegg's request for months.” [image]
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
9/ Arturo brought the results of his survey of @instagram's children to at least 20 executives and none of them acted on it. He has the emails to prove it.
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
14/ If Mark Zuckerberg had to say during his quarterly earnings call after he announced the company's profit, “and X% of children reported unwanted sexual advances”, that number would go down.
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
13/ Arturo responding to @SenJohnKennedy - “In your words senator, ‘social media makes it easier to be an a-hole’.”
-
@hawleymo
Josh Hawley
on x
Want to stop Big Tech pushing porn to our kids? Give parents the right to sue [video]
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
2/ Facebook/Instagrams's safety features are “placebos” - they look like safety features, but they don't accomplish anything. They're intentionally designed that way.
-
@hawleymo
Josh Hawley
on x
I've heard enough speeches. I've heard enough excuses. It's time to VOTE to stop child porn online. I will go to the floor to demand a vote on holding Big Tech accountable and protecting our kids - and we will put Senators on record [video]
-
@aaschapiro
Avi Asher-Schapiro
on x
Pretty damning stuff from former Meta engineer Arturo Béjar: “I can safely say that Meta's executives knew the harm that teenagers were experiencing, that there were things that they could do that are very doable and that they chose not to do them.” https://apnews.com/...
-
@bostonjoan
Joan Donovan, PhD
on x
Everyone needs to read this story and watch today's hearing on what @meta knew in October 2021 about its products. These execs knew about the harm and hid it. Deplorable behavior. https://www.wsj.com/...
-
@evan_greer
@evan_greer
on x
I said this in the staement that we released ahead of today's hearing, but I'm incredibly greatful to Arturo Bejar for speaking out. Whistleblowers should always be supported. The more the public knows about Big Tech's biz practices, the better. #KOSA still sucks. 🤷♀️
-
@bostonjoan
Joan Donovan, PhD
on x
Even Josh Hawley says Big Tech is the largest lobby in Congress. Lobbyists shut down all legislation and congre$$ gets rewarded for doing nothing. Hawley dares journalists to look into the lobbyists and where the money is going. I couldn't agree more.
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
34/ And we're done!! I second @SenBlumenthal 's thanks for Arturo's precision and his huge sacrifice to advance the safety of children around world. Let's stop talking about safety and act. The debate is over. Pass the Kids Online Safety Act.
-
@zamaan_qureshi
Zamaan Qureshi
on x
Béjar testifies that Meta knows when a kid/teen is spending a significant amount of time viewing harmful content on Instagram recommend to them by the company's algorithms. “Executives know this.”
-
@senblumenthal
Richard Blumenthal
on x
LIVE: My Judiciary Subcommittee is hearing from a whistleblower who warned Facebook & Meta's senior leadership about the harms their products are causing young people. Instead of acting, Meta hid the problem & did nothing to fix it. That must end now. https://twitter.com/...
-
@marshablackburn
Sen. Marsha Blackburn
on x
A whistleblower has come forward to expose how leaders at Meta specifically ignored harms to kids and teens on their platforms. Here's what he had to say in today's hearing ⬇️ [video]
-
@judiciarydems
@judiciarydems
on x
It takes tremendous bravery to speak truth to power. When Arturo Béjar blew the whistle on Instagram harming children, Mark Zuckerberg ignored him. We won't. Thank you for testifying today. https://twitter.com/...
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
3/ Arturo Bejar was the senior engineering and product leader at Facebook responsible for its efforts to keep users safe and supported from 2009 to 2015 - he ran Protect & Care. Other than senior executives, he's one of the most veteran social media congressional witnesses ever.
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
4/ He returned to @Meta to work on @instagram in 2019 because his daughter was having horrifying experiences on @instagram . He was thought they must not know what was going on - he was terrified to find out they already knew, they just decided not to act.
-
@franceshaugen
Frances Haugen
on x
1/ Today's Senate >Judiciary< hearing today is 🔥. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/ ... Proof that Meta intentional lied to Congress about the safety of kids on @instagram & @facebook
-
@zsk
Zoe Kleinman
on x
New from me: Meta whistleblower says the firm is ignoring data about the amount of sexual and misogynist harrassment experienced by teens on Instagram. Meta denies the claims and says it has introduced 30 tools to help young people https://www.bbc.com/...
-
@_andyburrows
Andy Burrows
on x
Meta whistleblower Arturo Béjar asked @mosseri what he considered acceptable number of unwanted sexual advances for teens on @instagram. As the risk profile soars because of how it intends to introduce E2E, we all deserve to hear an answer https://www.bbc.com/...