U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal addressed a Senate subcommittee today in a hearing on privacy, technology, and the law the same day he released whistleblower documents from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Blumenthal introduced whistleblower Arturo Bejar, former Director of Engineering for Protect and Care at Facebook.
“Mr. Bejar is the first to show in documents, not just in his recollection, but in documents how he warned the top management of Facebook and Instagram of the ongoing harms their products were causing,” Blumenthal said in his hearing remarks Tuesday morning.
He invited Bejar to testify about his experiences and warnings to company leadership about toxic content targeting children on Facebook.
"They minimize the problem of toxic content on bullying, eating disorders, and sexual advances,” Blumenthal said. “They were warned about it by Arturo Bejar in an email that he sent directly to Mark Zuckerberg. The response came from Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer CEO of the company.”
Blumenthal says Bejar’s concerns weren’t acted on.
“He met with Adam Lucero, who was the head of Facebook,” Blumenthal said. “Facebook, in effect, rolled back some of the protections for kids rather than adopting his recommendations for stronger safeguard".
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