Fifty-one percent of Instagram users surveyed reported harmful experiences every single week. Only 1–2% successfully got that content removed — a stark reminder of the ongoing child safety challenges facing social platforms. Meanwhile, Meta was telling the world the odds of a teenager encountering graphic or violent content sat somewhere around 0.01–0.02%. According to the man who ran those internal surveys, the real exposure rate was 100 to 400 times higher. Now that man is testifying in federal court — and 29 state attorneys general want damages that could reportedly reach $200 billion.
The gap between what Meta told the public and what its own data showed is at the center of this trial.
Arturo Béjar served as Meta’s engineering director from 2009 to 2015, returned as a contractor from 2019 to 2021 specifically to work on Instagram teen well-being, and briefed Mark Zuckerberg roughly 100 times during his tenure. On the stand in Oakland, he testified that Meta adopted what he called a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy toward child safety data — leadership preferred the question unanswered over the answer documented.
Here’s what the trial record shows so far:
Pastor Jun Kwang-hoon, accused of spreading false claims about President Lee Jae-myung's educational background, appeared before police for questioning. According to reporting by The Seoul Economi...