Meta Ignored Harms to Teens on Instagram, Ex-Staffer Testifies

Meta executives know their policies fail to protect kids but choose to ignore the problem, a former Facebook staffer told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Arturo Béjar, who served as an engineering director at Facebook then later as a consultant with Instagram’s well-being team, claimed he warned Meta Platforms Inc. chief Mark Zuckerberg and other top officials about safety concerns for teen users but was met with inaction. Béjar said his own internal research at the company, which found in a 2021 survey that one in eight teens aged 13 to 15 experienced unwanted sexual advances on Instagram within the past seven days, showed a critical gap in how Meta approaches harm.

“There are actionable steps that Meta could take to address the problem,” Béjar testified before a Senate Judiciary panel. “They are deciding time and time again to not tackle these issues.”

Social media platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, have come under immense fire as growing evidence suggests excessive online use and exposure to violent content, cyberbullying, and harassment could worsen kids’ and teens’ mental health. President Joe Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to strengthen kids’ online safety and privacy, and lawmakers are pushing to respond.

Béjar’s public allegations come after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen delivered blistering congressional testimony in 2021 alleging the company harms children. According to Béjar, his private warning to Meta’s executives came at the same time, and he left the company soon after.

In response to the new disclosures, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement Tuesday that: “Every day countless people inside and outside of Meta are working on how to help keep young people safe online.”

“The issues raised here regarding user perception surveys highlight one part of this effort, and surveys like these have led us to create features like anonymous notifications of potentially hurtful content and comment warnings. Working with parents and experts, we have also introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families in having safe, positive experiences online. All of this work continues,” he said.

Béjar said firsthand experience of his teenage daughter experiencing unwanted sexual advances on Instagram pushed him to return to Meta in 2019 to examine the issue after he worked there from 2009 to 2015. He alleged that tools created to protect kids during his first stint at the company had been removed and new safety features acted as a placebo.

“Social media companies must be required to become more transparent so that parents and public can hold them accountable,” Béjar said.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chair of the privacy, technology, and the law subcommittee, made an impassioned plea for Congress to crack down on tech companies during his opening remarks. He and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) are the lead sponsors of the Kids Online Safety Act (S. 1409), a bill that would establish a duty of care for social media platforms to protect kids from online harassment and content that promotes suicide, substance abuse, eating disorders, and sexual exploitation.

Tuesday’s testimony “just reinforces what so many of us know these companies are doing, and the fact that it’s time for change,” Laura Marquez-Garrett, an attorney at the Social Media Victims Law Center advocating for KOSA, said.

The bipartisan measure advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee in July, but has yet to reach the floor and faces intense lobbying opposition. Separately, the Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced a handful of bills targeting child sex abuse material online. A mix of tech and civil rights groups have claimed the legislation worsens privacy and safety online, rather than improving it.

Tech companies’ lobbying efforts have successfully crushed legislative proposals to rein in their power in the past. Meta has spent more than $14 million on federal lobbying so far this year, according to disclosures.

“We have fought this army of lobbyists for years. Big Tech has proven they are completely incapable of governing themselves,” Blackburn said. “It is so important that we move forward with this.”