Meta Whistleblower: New Senate Testimony Claims It Brings Harm to Children

Isaiah Richard, Tech Times 07 November 2023, 09:11 pm

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing took place earlier today, and it had another Meta whistleblower appeared in this proceeding, testifying to the public officials that the company is not safe for children. For many years, there have been different scandals that Meta, formerly Facebook, has faced, including the infamous 2021 trial where Frances Haugen revealed the company's dirty laundry.

In this focus, the hearing centered on the social media effects on teens, particularly on their mental health, with other top executives from other companies joining it.

Meta Whistleblower Claims Meta is Not Safe for Children

(Photo : TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Arturo Bejar testified among the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law earlier today, with the former director of engineering for Protect and Care at Facebook dropping significant information against the company. He told the Senate about the harms and dangers that the company brings to the public, centering on warning parents for their children's safety.

"Meta continues to publicly misrepresent the level and frequency of harm that users, especially children, experience on the platform, And they have yet to establish a goal for actually reducing those harms and protecting children," Bejar told the Senate. "It's time that the public and parents understand the true level of harm posed by these "products" and it's time that young users have the tools to report and suppress online abuse."

Social Media and the Teen Mental Health Crisis

The recent subcommittee hearing that centered on "Social Media and the Teen Mental Health Crisis" earlier today talked about the massive issues present on these platforms now, with Meta seeing a spotlight shone over it. Bejar worked at Facebook from 2009 to 2015, and at one point, he sent emails to Meta's executives about its safety, but nothing has changed since then.

Meta and its Issues on Teen, Children Safety

Back in 2021, one of the most significant cases against Facebook was abuzz, shaking the entire social media industry and the company because of the massive claims by Frances Haugen, the renowned whistleblower. Here, she talked about how Meta prioritized its profits over the safety of its users, testifying in Congress to talk about how the company shapes the public via the content.

It was not only Haugen who appeared in the courts to talk about what Meta does internally, with this new whistleblower having the same claims as the first one who came out. In their new claims, they regarded that Facebook has disregarded the mental health and safety of people online, and amidst this, there was also scrutiny revolving around Instagram's safety for teens.

Two years after the case, there is another one that throws shade over at Meta, but this time, it is a high-ranking executive of the company who revealed a lot to the Senate in this hearing. Bejar talked about his time over at Meta and how the "harm" for children has not yet established what it promised to reduce, with the company facing massive controversy yet again.