Arturo Béjar, former Meta safety engineer, tells jury tech company was aware of products’ potential harm to children

Meta has taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower who testified during a landmark trial against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Arturo Béjar, 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.

In his testimony, Béjar said his job often included him briefing Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, on product issues. He estimated that he spoke to the CEO at least 100 times. One email Béjar sent to Zuckerberg in 2021 showed the engineer warning of constant reports of harmful content and damage to teenage wellbeing on Facebook and Instagram. Béjar said he emailed Zuckerberg after the CEO publicly said the company doesn’t prioritize profit over safety.

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[–] 30 points 2 months ago
[–] 12 points 2 months ago

Evil company does evil things -> nothing happens

I'm so tired of this timeline

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago

    Wasn't one of the Facebook founders a child rapist? I seem to recall that fact from the movie.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago

    At this point it's only news if Zuckerberg isn't lying about something.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    And to think, I was fooled this entire time! Next you're going to tell me this presidency is corrupt it something...

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    I mean, were we expecting something different?

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  • 23 comments in c/technology@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 50 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    We can’t even trust our benevolent billionaires now?! What has this world come to

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    If only taxation in the past worked (it did)!

    Is there any way we can get out of this terrible predicament (it's taxing the wealthy, btw).

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    100% cool with taxing wealth.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    The tragedy of a missing coma.

    They meant "Tax wealth, not work" as in we should tax excessive wealth as opposed to taxing the labour of everyday people.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 months ago
    [–] 14 points 2 months ago

    Could have just stopped at “Zuck lied” because that guy has never told the truth once in his entire life

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago

    He estimated that he spoke to the CEO at least 100 times. One email Béjar sent to Zuckerberg in 2021 showed the engineer warning of constant reports of harmful content and damage to teenage wellbeing on Facebook and Instagram.

    I'll say it twice today, fuck Mark Zuckerberg.

    There's only two ways to stop a billionaire from harming others while in pursuit of more money/power, because they have zero empathy. First, is laws with sharp teeth and prison time. The second involves more direct application of sharp objects.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Why doesn't he try being less of a skid mark, I feel like that would be a good direction for him to take his personality. Far apart from anything else if you didn't constantly take the evil root he would probably make more money.

    Like the metaverse thing, it could have actually worked if literally any of one other than Mark Zuckerberg had been in charge of the project.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago

    Why is this news?

    Zuckerberg ist going to call Cheeto Benito and he'll find a way to supress the trials outcome.

    ...I'm tired.

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  • [+] -6 points 2 months ago (10 children)

    why is it the company's job to look after kids instead of the parents?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I think it's the company's job to put the tools in place for parents to turn on and configure. In the same way you use a hammer to hit the nail to hang the painting, you need the tools in place for parental controls.

    But it's also up to the parents to actually USE these tools. If the parents don't turn them on, then the parents are at fault. And if there were gaps in these controls that Meta was aware of, then Meta was at fault.

    Though the problem here is that Meta probably knew what they were doing, and they were likely doing so because they profited from it. Meta requires continued engagement to make money from ad revenue, and you do that by addicting the people using it. It's always about the money.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Would you think it acceptable for a gun manufacturer to make a gun that looked like a Fisher-Price toy, then market it to children? I’m not saying parents do not have a role here, I’m saying there are behaviors from companies that should be explicitly banned because they target children.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    We shouldn’t expect companies to “look after kids”. We should, however, force companies to adhere to the law. The law in this case is, “don’t use manipulative and socially destructive business practices; They fck our society and harm the kids.”

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    I don't know how to make any clearer, if you want a future country it is all our job to make sure kids are safe. The parents may be primarily responsible for protecting them, but if your company is a threat to children, and you're not taking steps to mitigate that, you need to be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago*

    I dont think we should have a society full of threats and then blame the parents when they don't predict and protect their kids from it.

    Its better to not have the threats. Specially since these kind of threats are for profit and it's their business model.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago*

    When they make money not doing it.

    Thats a very important distinction. Negligence over something free is one thing, but profiting off it is a whole different thing for pretty much any other company on Earth, yet somehow social media has gotten a pass.

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  • 10 comments in c/technology@lemmy.zip view that post
    [–] 58 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    Fuckerberg also famously partied with Jeffrey Epstein in 2015, well after he was publicly convicted of soliciting a minor in Florida, sent to jail then released.

    So yeah, I'd say Fuckerberg isn't terribly concerned by the well-being of children.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    so he can be the next president?!

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  • [–] 22 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    Unlikely. As awful as Fuckerberg is, he's not a convicted sex offender, a felon or an insurrectionist. He simply doesn't have what it takes to win an election in the US now.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago

    Fuckerberg lied? What a shocking shocker!

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    Duh? I mean seriously. Make a new account on on of their platforms and click a video or picture of a little girl in a leotard. Read the creepy, terrifying comments left by old men. Now the algorithm will feed you more pictures and videos like that, with the same child predator comments.

    They know what they're doing. Same as trying to design their AI to sex chat little kids, the only thing they care about is making people use their platforms as much as they can get them to do so.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 months ago*

    Then put him in jail. Stop with this fining bullshit. They have infinite money. Put these ceo fuckers in jail. They are the face of the company, they get to face the companies punishment.

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago*

    Meta is absolutely aware its algo is pushing content from sexual predators for other sexual predators. I've been flagging some stuff for months and Meta's system repeatedly refuses to do anything about it. It's sickening. I was really close to start letter writing different politicians in my area to get it banned in Canada.

    Its genuinely the worst platform I have ever seen in my life. The worse subreddits or 4chan pages were not this blatant.

    I don't think people understand how bad Facebook has gotten. It is full to the brim of criminal activities of all kinds.

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