Tuesday’s Senate testimony by former Meta engineer Arturo Béjar is putting wind in the sails of bipartisan efforts to regulate social media, The Hill reports. Béjar testified that teens are experiencing unwanted sexual advances and widespread bullying on Instagram, and when corporate executives were informed of these harms, they declined to act to stop them.

The hearing shone a spotlight on the necessity of keeping kids safe online, a rare issue both sides of the aisle agree upon. Senators from both parties took the opportunity to push urgent action on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chair of the subcommittee and a lead sponsor of KOSA, stated, “No parent or child can trust Facebook, or Meta, after this whistleblower’s powerful account, laying bare their denial and deception.”

“Congress must act. It must pass the Kids Online Safety Act,” he added.

Ranking subcommittee member Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), echoed that call for the bill to be brought to the floor for a vote his year, arguing it was time for Congress to take action “years ago.”

During the hearing, former Meta engineer Arturo Béjar alleged Meta executive leadership were fully aware of the ways its platforms harmed young people – and were aware of steps to take to mitigate that harm – but chose not to act. In 2021, Béjar said he alerted CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg and others of his concerns by email but received no reply.

Béjar stated that Instagram is a product “like ice cream, or a toy, or a car.”

“I ask you, how many kids need to get sick from a batch of ice cream or be hurt by a car before there’s all matters of investigation?” he argued.

Meta strongly countered Béjar’s allegations and assessment, highlighting changes made to Meta’s platforms in response to such surveys, in a statement by company spokesperson Andy Stone: “Every day countless people inside and outside of Meta are working on how to help keep young people safe online. The issues raised here regarding user perception surveys highlight one part of this effort, and surveys like these have led us to create features like anonymous notifications of potentially hurtful content and comment warnings.”

Stone also explained apparent discrepancies between data in the surveys conducted by Béjar and his team and Meta’s public data on the prevalence of harmful content. Meta’s data is based on how many times users view such unwanted posts and images rather than relying on user perceptions. Stone asserted that the types of data are merely different and not in conflict with each other. Further, the company’s efforts to stem the tide of unwanted content is ongoing. “All of this work continues,” Stone added.

The Kids Online Safety Act, designed to add guardrails to protect minors from harm online, advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in July. It advanced last year, as well, but never made it to the Senate floor.

Senator Richard Blumenthal explained that the renewed push to pass the act is not about censorship but safety, and listening to teen voices.

“We’re not trying to come between kids and what they want to see but simply enable them to disconnect from algorithms when it drives content that they don’t want.”

Read the full article here.

Klar, Rebecca. “Former Meta staffer’s allegation renew calls for kids online safety bill.” The Hill.com, 7 Nov 2023, https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4298056-former-meta-staffers-allegations-renew-calls-for-kids-online-safety-bill/.

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