{"id":18993,"date":"2026-08-20T12:56:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/?p=18993"},"modified":"2026-08-20T12:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T12:57:06","slug":"ex-meta-executive-testifies-instagram-safety-was-afterthought-driven-by-engagement-metrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nile1.com\/en\/2026\/08\/20\/ex-meta-executive-testifies-instagram-safety-was-afterthought-driven-by-engagement-metrics\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Meta Executive Testifies Instagram Safety Was ‘Afterthought’ Driven by Engagement Metrics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta’s internal compensation structures rewarded employees for maximizing user engagement while ignoring minor safety, a former executive testified Wednesday in a federal trial where he described a \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d corporate attitude toward children under 13 on Instagram.<\/p>\n

In his second day on the witness stand, Arturo B\u00e9jar<\/a> testified that Meta repeatedly prioritized revenue over user well-being during product development, focusing on maximizing time spent on its platforms even when aware of harms to mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you step away from the product, they are not going to make any money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The federal trial in Oakland, California<\/a>, which opened Tuesday, pits Meta against California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey in a proceeding projected to last six weeks. The four states belong to a coalition of 29 states that filed lawsuits against the social media giant in 2023 over youth safety and privacy, with 25 remaining states slated for later trials alongside state court actions like an ongoing case in Tennessee.<\/p>\n

The state lawsuit alleges Meta deliberately fueled a youth mental health crisis by engineering addictive features while concealing platform risks from parents and the public. The legal filing further charges that Meta systematically gathered data from children under 13 without obtaining required parental consent, breaching federal standards.<\/p>\n

Meta maintains that account creation requires users to be at least 13 years old, complying with federal requirements under the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.<\/p>\n

Enacted by Congress in 1998, COPPA mandates that commercial websites obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal details from children under 13. However, enforcement across social platforms has long relied on age self-reporting during registration rather than mandatory identity checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attitude in particular on Instagram was \u2018Don\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell,\u2019\u201d B\u00e9jar said in response to a question about his perception of the company\u2019s attitude towards users under 13.<\/p>\n

Meta has denied all claims, contending that evidence presented during the trial will demonstrate its focus on protecting young users.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will hear over the course of this case a lot of important issues, issues like teen mental health, issues like social media, issues like how teens use social media,\u201d Meta lawyer Paul Schmidt said Tuesday. \u201cThose are important issues, and they\u2019re issues where Meta believes that it has a responsibility. It has a responsibility to act on its own. It has a responsibility to try to work with teens and parents in partnership to try to address those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs\u2019 witness says safety was an \u2018afterthought\u2019<\/p>\n

B\u00e9jar worked at Facebook from 2009 to 2015, drawing national recognition for designing anti-cyberbullying tools, before returning as a contractor from 2019 to 2021 to address safety concerns. During a 2023 congressional hearing on social media and youth mental health, he informed lawmakers that executive leadership, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>, knew Instagram was causing harm but declined to enact meaningful remedies.<\/p>\n

Testifying Wednesday, B\u00e9jar noted that employee evaluations and financial incentives for product teams were overwhelmingly tied to growing active user counts and increasing screen time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that context, safety was an afterthought,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The coalition of states is seeking operational changes to Facebook and Instagram alongside substantial financial penalties that could reach billions of dollars. The California Attorney General’s Office noted in a written statement that any monetary penalties would be established by the judge if Meta is found liable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is about stopping Meta from offering a dangerous product to teens, and from lying to teens, families, and the public about the dangerousness of their platforms. The primary remedy under our state consumer protection law is an injunction,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

B\u00e9jar pointed out specific product mechanics that he argued were engineered for adults and remain \u201cinherently unsafe for teenagers.\u201d<\/p>\n

These features include automatic video playback, which forces teenagers to view harmful content without clicking, as well as public counters that track likes, views, comments, and follower metrics.<\/p>\n

Child development experts emphasize that adolescents are uniquely susceptible to social comparison, making platforms that quantify social validation significantly more damaging to their psychological well-being.<\/p>\n

Quantitative feedback systems like like counts and automated video playback stimulate dopamine pathways, reinforcing repetitive interaction patterns in developing brains that make youth populations especially vulnerable to compulsive social media use.<\/p>\n

Age verification has been criticized for not going far enough<\/p>\n

Despite assertions by Meta that it actively works to identify and remove children under 13, B\u00e9jar testified that his research identified \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of underage users on Instagram. He added that the presence of pre-teens on the app was \u201ccommon knowledge\u201d inside the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeta has one of the most sophisticated infrastructures in the world to detect fake accounts,\u201d he said. Yet despite possessing those capabilities, he testified that leadership established \u201cno goals, no metrics\u201d to flag or verify account holders suspected of being under 13.<\/p>\n

While Meta has introduced various youth safety settings over the years, B\u00e9jar stated that these measures proved ineffective in practice.<\/p>\n

He cited the \u201cTake a Break\u201d feature introduced in 2021 as a tool \u201cdesigned to fail\u201d because it relies on opt-in activation. Based on his experience building platform settings, B\u00e9jar noted that few users take the initiative to turn them on, likening the setup to requiring drivers to manually activate a vehicle’s airbag before driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cA safety tool has to be on by default,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Because the alert can be dismissed with a single tap, B\u00e9jar testified that the feature fails to interrupt usage patterns, demonstrating that Meta did not construct the safeguard to meaningfully halt platform engagement.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this story from Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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