Meta whistleblower claims Mark Zuckerberg created 'false impression' of concern for child safety
Former Meta safety engineer Arturo Béjar has accused the company of ignoring warnings about harm to children on Instagram and Facebook during a landmark trial against the tech giant in California.
Meta adopted a "don’t ask, don’t tell" approach to child safety on its platforms, a former company safety engineer has told a US court.
Arturo Béjar, who worked on Facebook and Instagram safety systems, testified that Meta knew its products could expose young users to harmful content, including sexual harassment, violent material and posts from predators.
Béjar gave evidence during a landmark trial in Oakland, California, brought by 29 US states that accuse Meta of deliberately designing addictive platforms that harmed children.
The states claim the company prioritised engagement and profits over protecting young users.
The former engineer told jurors he repeatedly raised concerns with senior executives, including chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Béjar estimated he spoke with Zuckerberg around 100 times during his time at Meta.
In 2021, Béjar sent Zuckerberg an email warning about reports of harmful experiences among teenagers using Facebook and Instagram.
He said the message was sent after Zuckerberg publicly claimed the company did not prioritise profits over safety.
Béjar testified: "I felt that he created a false and misleading impression of Facebook’s commitment to young people."
When asked whether Zuckerberg responded to his email, Béjar said: "No. I didn’t hear back from him."
Béjar said he believed contacting Zuckerberg directly was important because "when Mark makes something a priority, mountains move".
During his testimony, Béjar discussed research into teenage experiences on Instagram, including surveys that found 51 per cent of users reported having a harmful experience within the previous week.
He said only 0.02 per cent of those reported issues resulted in content being removed.
He also highlighted how features such as infinite scrolling benefited Meta’s advertising business.
Béjar told the court: "On scroll, the more views you have, the more ads you sell, the more revenue you make."
Meta has denied the allegations.
The company’s lawyer Paul Schmidt argued that social media use does not constitute addiction and said Meta has introduced tools to improve safety.
Schmidt also pointed out that Meta removes accounts belonging to children under 13 and has disabled more than one million such accounts.
The trial is expected to last six weeks and will include testimony from Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and child mental health experts.
If Meta is found liable, the company could face damages potentially reaching hundreds of billions of dollars, alongside demands for major changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate for younger users.
