Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta

Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta The former Meta employee testified that the firm culture prioritized user numbers over child safety measures.

Key points

• Béjar worked at Facebook from 2009 to 2015, largely focusing on cyberbullying.
• Testifying in federal court in Oakland, California, for a second day on Wednesday, Béjar.
• On the stand, Béjar observed that he'd seen a number of internal Meta studies that highlighted risks for teens on Facebook and Instagram.
• Former Meta engineer Arturo Bejar leaves the Ronald V.
• 'Profits won.' The child safety trial against Meta kicks off in federal court.

Former Meta engineer Arturo Bejar leaves the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building & United States Courthouse as Meta is on trial over social media addiction in Oakland, California, on August 19, 2026. KARL MONDON/AFP via Getty Images hide caption. KARL MONDON/AFP via Getty Images.

Meta was infused with a culture in which employees obsessed over user numbers and consistently pushed safety to the side, according to Arturo Béjar, a former employee turned whistleblower. This person testified today in the landmark child safety trial against the social media firm. Only one man had the ability to change that, Béjar remarked: CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But he didn't.

"At the end of the day, it was the company culture that Mark had created that made it so that it was practically impossible to deliver features that addressed the wellbeing and safety issues that we've been talking about, " he remarked.

Béjar is a linchpin witness for a consortium of states led by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey that sued Meta, alleging violations of consumer and child data protection laws, and that the firm lied to the public concerning risks its platforms posed. The attorneys for the states say Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to hook young users and to keep them on site longer thanks to features such as infinite scrolling and the "like" button.

Meta has denied the allegations. In his opening statement on Tuesday, attorney Paul Schmidt argued that the firm was sensitive to the risks to teens, sought to address them and did not deceive the public concerning them.

Notably, the state attorneys have not yet remarked if they will call Zuckerberg as a witness.

Testifying in federal court in Oakland, California, for a second day on Wednesday, Béjar. This person worked on safety problems at Meta for eight years, stated he interacted with Zuckerberg dozens of times, and charged that Zuckerberg was not telling the truth when he created public denials that the business put profits over safety. Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial.

In particular, Béjar addressed a widely-shared Facebook post Zuckerberg created in 2021 after another whistleblower, Frances Haugen, shared internal documents with The Wall Street Journal that highlighted risks to the mental health of teens. In the post, Zuckerberg remarked it's "just not true" that Meta prioritizes profit over safety and wellbeing.

"Based on my experience at Meta, that is not an accurate statement, " Béjar remarked.

On the stand, Béjar observed that he'd seen a number of internal Meta studies that highlighted risks for teens on Facebook and Instagram. The studies surveyed users, including teenagers, regarding their experiences with harmful content on the platforms and negative feelings associated with them.

But he remarked efforts to introduce or change features to effectively address those risks were challenging to implement. Instead, Béjar testified, at almost every turn the firm chose policies that boosted usership and revenue over safety. Safety was "not a meaningful priority, " he remarked.

Béjar worked at Facebook from 2009 to 2015, largely focusing on cyberbullying. He returned to the firm from 2019 to 2021 as a consultant to work on Instagram's wellbeing team. He remarked one of the reasons for his return was seeing how his daughter was treated as a teen on Instagram.

This is not the first time Béjar has spoken out against his former employer. In 2023, he testified before a Senate committee alleging that Meta pushed content to teens that promoted bullying, drug abuse, eating disorders and self-harm. He additionally provided an extensive interview to The Wall Street Journal that year, describing his efforts to raise his reservations with his employer.

In practice, the current case, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, is a high-stakes test of efforts to hold Meta accountable, not for the content on its platforms, but for the features it built into its platforms. Since it makes its capital through advertising, the states allege they were designed to encourage compulsive employ, and that the business stood to financially benefit from keeping young users on site. The more users scroll – and the better-targeted ads they see – the more Meta stands to profit.

Research points to how firms could produce social media less addictive for teens.

Verdicts against Meta and Google may bring a new era of major tech accountability.

It is one of thousands of lawsuits against social media firms alleging that their platforms are addictive and have fueled youth mental health difficulties.

On cross examination, Meta attorney Brian Stekloff asked Béjar regarding the quality of the residents he worked with at Meta and whether or not he had "solved" any of the safety risks he had worked on, in an apparent effort to highlight the complexity and difficulty of these challenges.

Béjar remarked the teams he worked with were full of qualified residents whom he respected, and that none of the risk problems had been solved.

He called features like video autoplay, "like" counters and infinite scroll "inherently unsafe for teenagers."

And when it came to safety features Meta has introduced to try to minimize some of the risks, Béjar remarked they were "designed to fail." Features like Instagram's "quiet mode, " which can mute push notifications, are ineffective as they are optional settings rather than defaults, he noted.

"Most people will not turn the setting on, " he remarked. "It's like you have to turn on the air bag every time you get into the car." The trial is projected to last concerning six weeks.

Meanwhile, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. It was founded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, is a financial supporter of NPR.

Taken together, the developments around whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.