Why Arturo Béjar left Meta – and blew the whistle: ‘I don’t recall Mark ever being empathetic’
Béjar’s daughter was 14 when she told him Instagram was failing to keep her safe. So when he became part of Meta’s ‘wellbeing team’, he knew he had to speak out – and his testimony cost it billions The Social Reckoning hits cinemas this Friday, but the real world has already been working on a sequel – or rather, a threequel. Directed by Aaron Sorkin, the movie is a follow-up to The Social…
Arturo Béjar, a consultant working on Meta's Instagram wellbeing team, decided to speak out after learning from his 14-year-old daughter that the platform was failing to protect her. His concern was not unfounded, as the statistics his team gathered were alarming. Among 13-15-year-olds on Instagram, 24.4% reported receiving unwanted advances, and 21.8% experienced bullying in the past week.
Even more concerning was that 51% of the platform's users had a harmful experience in the last seven days, yet only 1% reported it, and of those, only 2% had their content removed. This grim picture showed a stark contrast to the company's own measurements, indicating a much higher degree of harm than Meta acknowledged. Despite his concerns, Béjar never received a response from Zuckerberg.
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