{"id":819216,"date":"2026-08-19T22:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/819216\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T22:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T22:22:12","slug":"zuckerberg-lied-about-concern-for-child-safety-meta-whistleblower-testifies-at-landmark-trial-meta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/819216\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trial | Meta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta<\/a> has taken a \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower<\/a> who testified during a landmark trial<\/a> against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Arturo B\u00e9jar<\/a>, a former Meta safety engineer, told the jury that the company was aware of the harm its products caused children, which included its recommendations pushing content from sexual predators and violent and graphic images. He said he repeatedly raised the issue to various Facebook and Instagram executives but that they did little to resolve it.<\/p>\n

In his testimony, B\u00e9jar said his job often included him briefing Meta\u2019s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, on product issues. He estimated that he spoke to the CEO at least 100 times. One email B\u00e9jar sent to Zuckerberg in 2021 showed the engineer warning of constant reports of harmful content and damage to teenage wellbeing on Facebook and Instagram. B\u00e9jar said he emailed Zuckerberg after the CEO publicly said the company doesn\u2019t prioritize profit over safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt that he created a false and misleading impression of Facebook\u2019s commitment to young people,\u201d B\u00e9jar testified.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9jar added that he sent those reports directly to Zuckerberg because, \u201cin my experience, when Mark makes something a priority, mountains move\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid he ever respond to you?\u201d the attorney representing the government asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d B\u00e9jar replied. \u201cI didn\u2019t hear back from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

B\u00e9jar was the first witness called to the stand in the federal trial that started with opening statements on Tuesday. The case<\/a> was brought against Meta by 29 US state attorneys general, who allege the social media company deliberately designed addictive products that lured in young people and led to them being harmed. The legal officials also claim the trillion-dollar company regularly collects data on children under the age of 13 without parental permission in violation of federal and state laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard from many of you at jury selection that the health and wellbeing of kids is a shared responsibility,\u201d said Megan O\u2019Neill, deputy attorney general for California<\/a>, in her opening statements. \u201cMeta didn\u2019t do its share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other witnesses to be called include Zuckerberg and Instagram\u2019s CEO, Adam Mosseri, along with other executives and experts on children\u2019s mental health and addiction. Reams of Meta\u2019s internal documents and emails have also been released as evidence. The trial, which is taking place in Oakland, California<\/a>, is expected to last at least six weeks.<\/p>\n

Meta denies all allegations in the case. Paul Schmidt, an attorney for Meta<\/a>, said in his opening statements that there was \u201cno dispute\u201d people can struggle with social media, but that Meta had \u201ccome up with tools to try and address that\u201d. He added the company did not allow children under the age of 13 to register for accounts on its social networks and that it had disabled more than 1m accounts of those young users.<\/p>\n

The sweeping legal proceedings could have profound consequences for Meta. If the company is found liable, damages could be as high as $200bn \u2013 an amount equivalent to the company\u2019s 2025 annual revenue. The lawmakers are also asking that Meta be forced to change the design of its products to make them safer for children, which could have lasting effects on the company\u2019s business model.<\/p>\n

Whistleblower testimony<\/p>\n

During his two days on the stand, B\u00e9jar spoke about his research on harm to children as well as Meta\u2019s reliance on advertising to make money. He said features like infinite scroll, which have been described as keeping users glued to social networks, had been a boon for Meta.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOn scroll, the more views you have, the more ads you sell, the more revenue you make,\u201d B\u00e9jar testified.<\/p>\n

The safety engineer worked in senior positions for Meta for about eight years, in two separate stints, and has been an outspoken critic of the company\u2019s child wellbeing practices since leaving in 2021. He has testified before a US Senate committee and has served as a witness in other social media cases that involve harm to children.<\/p>\n

One of his motivations for first tackling the issue inside the company was seeing how his own teenage daughter was treated on Instagram. He said she received unwanted sexual advances and photos of male genitals as well as misogynistic insults. Later, she told her father that reporting these abuses through the Instagram\u2019s established processes was either ineffective or not possible.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9jar said that he started conducting surveys of teen\u2019s experiences at Instagram. He found that 51% of users said \u201cyes\u201d to having had bad or harmful experiences within the previous seven days. Of those users, the content was taken down only 0.02% of the time, according to his testimony.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9jar said he sent those findings to Meta\u2019s top executives, including Zuckerberg and Mosseri.<\/p>\n

In a quick back-and-forth, the lawyer for Meta tried to downplay B\u00e9jar\u2019s testimony. He highlighted the engineer\u2019s good working relationship with both the company and its leadership, asking questions like \u201cYou had the support of Mr Zuckerberg?\u201d, \u201cYou did not leave on bad terms?\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re still proud of the work you did at Meta?\u201d<\/p>\n

To all, B\u00e9jar answered \u201cyes\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta has taken a \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d strategy when it comes to the safety of children on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-819216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}