Discussion

• @jonlemire Jonathan Lemire on x

  How Meta Executives Talked About Child Safety Behind the Scenes For years, employees acknowledged a problem with potential child groomers, but prioritized growth over fixes https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...

• @damonberes.com Damon Beres on bluesky

  Meta knew what the risk was.  In 2019, an internal analysis showed that 27% of the account recommendations made to people engaging in “groomer-esque” behavior belonged to minors—"We are recommending nearly 4X as many minors to groomers (nearly 2 million minors in the last 3 month…

• @damonberes.com Damon Beres on bluesky

  What might this growth hit have been in material terms?  One company analysis showed that teens might spend 1.9% less time on the platform by the end of a five-year period if their accounts were made private—and thereby shielded from predators—by default.  The growth team advised…

• @damonberes.com Damon Beres on bluesky

  In a different situation, internal chats between company spokespeople showed disbelief at how Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri worried about a potential “growth hit” that would come from making accounts belonging to minors private by default.  “Is he fucking nuts?” [image]

• @damonberes.com Damon Beres on bluesky

  In November 2020, certain safeguards that were in place at the time temporarily failed, leading to “thousands of minors” reporting severe interactions, which could include “extortion, sadism, and sex trafficking”  —  “We haven't done anything” one employee wrote.  “God knows what…

• @damonberes.com Damon Beres on bluesky

  NEW: Documents viewed by @michaelscherer.bsky.social and @kait.bsky.social give a candid look at how Meta approaches the issue of child safety.  For years, it dragged its feet on features that would help prevent groomers from targeting kids, explicitly prioritizing growth and eng…