Meta consultant flagged Instagram harm in internal memo

In October 2021, Arturo Béjar, a consultant on Instagram’s wellbeing team, reported to Mark Zuckerberg and senior Meta executives that internal surveys showed over half of Instagram users had experienced recent harm, with much higher rates among young teens. His email highlighted that only a tiny fraction of harmful content was being removed, far below previous company estimates. Béjar says Zuckerberg never responded to his plea for cultural change within Meta.

• Internal survey showed over 50% faced harm in a week
• Among 13-15-year-olds, 24.4% had unwanted advances
• Only 0.02% of harmful content reported was removed
• Béjar’s concerns reportedly got no reply from leaders