In testimony to U.S. senators, Arturo Behar said his teenage daughter and her friends suffered unwanted sexual advances on Instagram for years. Photo: Stephanie Scarbrough/AP
Instagram owner Meta is “fundamentally misleading” the public about the security of its photo-sharing app for teens, a former executive turned whistleblower has said.
Arturo Behar said on Instagram that it is «absolutely not suitable» for children aged 13 and over, increasing pressure on the tech giant over its influence on teenagers.
The 52-year-old left Meta disappointed at the end of 2021 year, made his concerns public when speaking to US senators two weeks ago.
He told US politicians that his teenage daughter Joanna and her friends had been subjected to years of unwanted sexual advances on Instagram, the photo-sharing app open to those aged 13 and over. Bejar said the company did not respond to his concerns.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Bejar, who has worked in Silicon Valley for more than 25 years, said he went public after privately raising concerns with a Facebook executive. and Instagram executives, including boss Mark Zuckerberg.
He said: “I realized that if I had not done anything in that moment, nothing would have changed.”
He claims his warnings were ignored, leaving him to regret the company's inaction.
Bejar cites the tragic case of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old British girl who died in 2017, as an example of how Meta's policies may put teenagers in danger.
Molly saved 2,100 posts related to depression or self-harm on her phone, many of which did not break Instagram rules, a coroner was told last year. The coroner ruled that Molly died from «an act of self-harm, suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.»
Molly Russell , a 14-year-old British girl who died in 2017, had 2,100 messages about depression or self-harm saved on her phone. Photo: Family handout
Bejar said many Instagram accounts may post «terrible but not offensive content» under current rules, leaving teens with no way to complain or seek help.
After our interview, he says he “was thinking about Molly Russell all day.” He said: “If you look at the content that Molly viewed, what percentage violated?”
“While the company talks about its safety features, what tools do they give teens when they receive recommended content? Is this undesirable?»
According to Bejar, Instagram's overall design doesn't encourage teens to report things that make them uncomfortable.
Teens may be wary of reporting other users because it will reduce their engagement, he adds, and the design of the app's reporting tools is too confusing for younger users.
Executives of an 850-revenue tech giant billions of dollars were well aware of this. potential harm caused by Instagram because it warned them about them, he said.
His team's research found that about 13% of children aged 13 to 15 received an unwanted sexual advance on Instagram in just one week. At least 6.7% of these children also saw alarming messages about self-harm in the past seven days.
In October 2021, after spending months compiling his research, Bejar wrote an email to Zuckerberg expressing his concerns , but was ignored.
Two years later, he says, little has changed. He told senators that there is “no way that I or the teens I know can easily identify a way” to easily report unwanted sexual advances on the app.
When asked if he thought Instagram was currently appropriate for a 13-year-old , Bejar replied: “No, that’s absolutely not true.”
Bejar has worked in the high-tech industry since he was 15 years old. from IBM in Mexico City to a chance meeting with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Wozniak sent him an Apple computer and invited him to visit Silicon Valley. He later supported him while studying at King's College London before Bejart returned to California.
A security expert, he joined the company, then known as Facebook, in 2009, becoming CTO of the company's protection and care team.
He left in 2015 to spend more time with his children. But by 2019, he became concerned that his daughter, who was 14 at the time, was receiving unwanted sexual advances on Instagram.
Bejar returned to Meta as a consultant to work on security technology, but found his efforts were ignored.
His second tenure at the company coincided with a series of damaging leaks about the social network collected by the Wall Street Journal. Ultimately, in 2021, data scientist Frances Haugen went public as the source of the leaks and gave a dossier of information to US senators.
Data scientist Frances Haugen said the social media giant failed to protect children. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
Her claims were based on research that showed Meta, then known as Facebook, knew that Instagram made teenage girls feel worse about themselves.
The company has categorically denied these claims. Zuckerberg said in October of that year: “At the heart of these accusations is the idea that we put profit before security and well-being. It's simply not true.”
While Haugen went public, Bejar privately pushed for change. He reported his concerns to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri.
On the same day that Haugen gave her testimony to US politicians, he sent Zuckerberg a personal email detailing how teenagers were being exposed to more harm on Instagram than previously thought, which he said was «tragic and fascinating.» The note was captioned: «The gap in our understanding of harm and bad experiences.»
His concerns were ignored and Zuckerberg never responded.
Bejar called the weak response from executives «heartbreaking» «, because he believed that they simply did not realize the scale of the problem. Now his superiors knew, but still little was done to stop the harm.
He said, “I have experienced first-hand that they are ignoring what can be called statistically significant research,” which suggested millions of teenagers were experiencing safety issues when using Meta apps.
Meta reveals case data hate speech, bullying and harassment on their social networks as part of regular transparency reports.
However, Bejar argues that these figures are “misleading and distort” the problem because they only reveal a “fraction” of true harm.< /p>
The vast majority of negative events on Instagram do not violate its rules, he said. , and even if content does violate the rules, it cannot be reported.
His company research found that half of Instagram users had an unpleasant experience in the past seven days, but only 1% of those incidents resulted in a formal report to the company. However, only 2% of these complaints resulted in action being taken.
In response to detailed questions from The Telegraph, a Meta spokesperson said it was “absurd to suggest” that there was “any conflict” between research into user “perception” of Instagram and transparency reports.
“Prevalence rates and user perception surveys measure two different things. We are taking actions based on both, and work on both continues to this day,” the spokesperson said.
In the UK, tech giants will soon be forced to provide detailed transparency data to Ofcom as part of their obligations under the Online Safety Act. Bejar said social media companies need to do a better job of collecting and publishing data on how many children experience unwanted sexual advances on their apps.
Meta says teen accounts are automatically made private when they sign up, and people over 19 can't message teens who don't follow them. Meanwhile, new features mean that people you don't follow can only send one chat invite.
Meta, which rebranded Facebook shortly after the Haugen revelations surfaced in 2021, is pushing to add additional encryption to chat. its messaging services, including «DM» on Instagram.
This has sparked a backlash from child safety campaigners who fear it will make it harder to catch potential abusers.
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Bejar said encrypted messages are «really important» for many people, but he is less sure whether they are suitable for children.
“Should young people have encrypted content? I don't think they should do that.»
Bejar's statements come as Meta faces a series of legal challenges from dozens of US states over allegations it used «manipulative features» to tie up children to their sites. The company is also being sued by the US Federal Trade Commission, alleging that its control of Instagram is anti-competitive.
After being forced to testify in one of the trials, Bejar said he was «distraught.» » because he concluded that so little had been done to address the harm he was trying to uncover.
He decided to be «the most helpful person I can» to regulators and officials interested in the company .
Asked whether he believed child safety was a top priority at Meta, which posted net profits of $22.5 billion in the 12 months to June, Bejar said dozens of researchers have since been laid off from Instagram's wellbeing team. he left.
“That says a lot about priorities.”
Responding to Bejar’s Senate speech, a Meta spokesman said: “Every day, countless people inside and outside Meta work to , how to keep young people safe online.
“Working with parents and experts, we've also rolled out more than 30 tools to help teens and their families have a safe and positive online experience. All this work continues.”
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