Some of Meta's Safety Tools Were 'Designed to Fail': Witness
Former engineer Arturo Bejar said Meta made some safety features optional as prosecutors seek to prove the company put engagement over child protection.
- On Wednesday, former Meta engineering director Arturo Bejar testified in an Oakland, California trial that the company's safety tools were "designed to fail," contradicting Meta's defense that it created features to reduce risks for teens.
- A coalition of states suing Meta alleges the company deliberately designed products to "hook the users," with prosecutors claiming the business model "exploited how kids' brains work" and exposing the firm to a potential $200 billion penalty.
- California prosecutor Megan O'Neill argued during opening statements that Meta focuses on data harvesting, while Meta's lawyer, Paul Schmidt, stated Tuesday that the company "recognized that people can struggle" and attempted to provide helpful tools.
- Requiring users to manually enable reminders, safety features like the 2021 "Take a Break" tool were made opt-in. Bejar stated, "In my experience, 'Take a Break' is a feature that's designed to fail."
- Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser compared the case to the 1990s "big tobacco moment," noting that states are intervening where Congress failed to act. The trial is expected to last six weeks, though officials haven't confirmed if CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify.
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Did Mark Zuckerberg and Meta know that his platforms could harm teenagers? This is one of the central issues of the trial that opened in California, where a former engineer directly questions...
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Toronto SunSome of Meta's safety tools were 'designed to fail': Witness
A former employee testified Wednesday that some of Meta's safety tools for Facebook and Instagram were "designed to fail," contradicting the company's defense strategy in a landmark trial in California.
A former employee of US tech giant Meta testified on Wednesday that some of Meta's security features for Facebook and Instagram were "designed not to work," contradicting the company's defense strategy in a landmark trial in California.
A former director, Arturo Bihar, one of the leading critics of Meta's safety policies, was accused of promoting a culture within the company that made children's safety a secondary priority compared to growth and increased interaction on Facebook and Instagram. The former director's statements, Arturo Bihar, were one of the leading critics of Meta's safety policies, during the second day of his testimony in a prominent federal trial in Oakland, …
Arturo Béjar spent six years working on child safety tools on Facebook, by Meta, by Mark Zuckerberg, but told a jury that he did not fully understand the threats faced by young platform users until his 14-year-old daughter created an account on Instagram. He testified about his experience during the historic trial that is taking place in California, in which a coalition of state prosecutors accuses Meta of deliberately designing Facebook and Ins…
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