Former Meta engineer tells jury the company knew of harm to children and chose not to act.
Arturo Béjar walked into the Oakland federal courtroom this week and delivered the first major testimony in a case that could reshape how Facebook and Instagram work for young users. The former Meta safety engineer spent two days describing a company that tracked real harm to teens, then published softer numbers and kept shipping features that prioritized time spent over safety.
Béjar told the jury Meta knew its platforms pushed harmful content, including material from sexual predators and violent images, yet took a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to under-13 users. He said the company possessed tools that could flag potentially millions of underage accounts but did little to remove them. Public reports on policy violations, he testified, understated the actual risk users reported by as much as 100 times.
Warnings That Went Nowhere
Béjar worked in product safety roles across two stints totaling about eight years. He said he briefed Mark Zuckerberg on issues at least 100 times and emailed the CEO in 2021 after Zuckerberg publicly claimed the company did not put profit over safety. The message flagged ongoing reports of harmful content and damage to teenage wellbeing. Zuckerberg never replied.
“I felt that he created a false and misleading impression of Facebook’s commitment to young people,” Béjar told the court. He added that when Zuckerberg made something a priority, “mountains move.” In this case, he said, nothing moved.
Internal surveys he helped run found high rates of bad experiences among younger users—bullying, unwanted sexual advances, violence, and self-harm content. Meta measured “prevalence” of policy violations instead of the harm people actually reported. Features such as Reels rolled out with little safety consideration at launch, he said. Infinite scroll and recommendation systems kept users engaged longer, generating more ad views and revenue.
What the States Allege
California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are leading this phase of a larger 29-state lawsuit filed in 2023. They claim Meta designed Instagram and Facebook to encourage compulsive use among children and teens, then hid the risks from parents and the public. Prosecutors also accuse the company of collecting data from users under 13 without parental consent, violating federal children’s privacy rules.
In opening statements, California Deputy Attorney General Megan O’Neill summed up the alleged model in four words: hook the users, hold them, harvest their data, and hide the truth. She cited internal documents that treated “teen time spent” as a goal and described young users as the most valuable.
The trial is expected to run about six weeks before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. An eight-person advisory jury is hearing the evidence; the judge will decide the outcome. Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri are expected to testify later. States seek both financial penalties and court-ordered design changes, including stronger age limits and limits on features that drive endless scrolling.
Meta has denied the claims. Its lawyers argued the company has long acknowledged that some users struggle with social media and has built tools to address those issues. They said age verification is complicated and that the company disables more than a million underage accounts. Defense counsel described the states’ case as cherry-picking internal research out of context.
This testimony builds directly on our earlier coverage of the trial’s start: Meta Faces Landmark Trial Over Kids’ Addiction Claims
The case follows two earlier 2026 losses for Meta in state courts over youth harms. A New Mexico jury found the company liable and ordered hundreds of millions in penalties plus an abatement fund. Legal observers say a loss here could force broader changes across Meta’s products and influence how other platforms handle young users.
AI Disclosure: This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and was reviewed and edited by the Glowls News editorial team before publication.