Former Meta safety employee Arturo Bejar testifies in child safety lawsuit

Arturo Bejar's testimony described a Meta culture where employee focus on user growth routinely outweighed safety considerations. He said that only Mark Zuckerberg had the authority to alter that culture, but Zuckerberg did not act to prioritize safety. Bejar claimed that Zuckerberg's public statements denying that profit outweighed safety were not accurate based on his experience. He noted that he interacted with Zuckerberg dozens of times during his eight years working on safety issues at Meta.

For engineers, the testimony suggests that safety features may be deprioritized when they conflict with engagement-driven design choices. The states' lawsuit cites infinite scrolling and the like button as mechanisms intended to keep young users on the platform longer. If the allegations are upheld, Meta could face legal penalties that require changes to those features or to how they are deployed. Engineers may need to evaluate trade-offs between growth metrics and child protection when designing or operating similar services.

Bejar's account indicates that without a direct directive from top leadership, safety initiatives may struggle to gain traction inside the company. The outcome of the trial remains uncertain, and the states have not yet said whether they will call Zuckerberg as a witness. Should the court find Meta liable, the company might be forced to alter its product strategy, affecting how engineers implement features. Until such changes are mandated, the internal culture described by Bejar could continue to limit the effectiveness of safety-focused work.