● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportMedium impact1 negative
Former Instagram wellbeing consultant Arturo Béjar details platform harms and Meta's response
Key points
- Arturo Béjar sent an email to Mark Zuckerberg on October 5, 2021, detailing user harm.
- Survey found 24.4% of 13-15 year olds on Instagram received unwanted advances.
- 21.8% of 13-15 year olds experienced bullying in a seven-day period.
- Only 0.02% of reported harmful content was removed.
Internal Concerns Raised
On October 5, 2021, Arturo Béjar, a consultant for Instagram's wellbeing team, sent an email to Mark Zuckerberg and other senior Meta executives. The email highlighted a significant discrepancy in how the company approached and measured user harm on its platforms. This communication coincided with Frances Haugen's testimony to the US Senate regarding similar issues.
Survey Reveals High Harm Rates
Béjar's team conducted a survey that revealed concerning statistics about user experiences. Among 13-15-year-olds on Instagram, 24.4% reported receiving unwanted advances, and 21.8% stated they had been targets of bullying within the past seven days. Overall, 51% of Instagram users reported a bad or harmful experience in the same period.
Ineffective Reporting and Removal
The survey also exposed significant shortcomings in content moderation. Only 1% of users who experienced harm reported it, and of those reports, only 2% resulted in content removal. This means a mere 0.02% of all harmful experiences were addressed by content removal, indicating a substantial gap between reported harm and effective intervention.
Leadership's Response and Perspective
Mark Zuckerberg did not reply to Béjar's email. Béjar, who worked at Facebook for eight years, noted that communication with Zuckerberg required framing issues in terms of metrics rather than ethical concerns. He described Zuckerberg as intensely competitive and lacking empathy for user harm, focusing primarily on 'winning'.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
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Reporting from
Arturo Béjar, a former consultant on Instagram's wellbeing team, sent an email to Mark Zuckerberg detailing high rates of unwanted advances and bullying among young users, with low reporting and content removal rates. Béjar's internal survey showed 24.4% of 13-15 year olds received unwanted advances and 21.8% experienced bullying in a week, contrasting with Meta's existing metrics and indicating a significant gap in addressing harm.