Arturo BéjarSector leader

Biography

Arturo Béjar is a former engineering director and whistleblower who served as Director of Engineering for the 'Protect and Care' team at Facebook from 2009 to 2015, where he led the company's efforts to keep users safe from cyberbullying, child exploitation, and other online harms. He returned to Meta as a part-time independent consultant to Instagram's wellbeing team from 2019 to 2021, after which he became a whistleblower. In November 2023 he testified before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, alleging that Meta executives including Mark Zuckerberg were repeatedly warned about harms to children and teenagers but failed to act. In August 2026 he served as the lead witness in a landmark federal child-safety trial brought by 29 US state attorneys general against Meta. He operates independently via arturobejar.org, publishing essays for lawmakers, regulators, and trust-and-safety professionals, and has spoken to UK outlets including the BBC on social media's effects on children's mental health. He argues that social media platforms must measure and reduce harm to young people through transparent, user-centred safety tools rather than opt-in features designed to be ineffective.

References

1. 1.Arturo Béjar – Family Online Safety Institute — Establishes his role as engineering and product leader for Facebook safety 2009–2015 and founding of Protect and Care team
2. 2.Transcript: Senate Hearing on Social Media and Teen Mental Health with Former Facebook Engineer Arturo Bejar – Tech Policy Press — Establishes his title as former Director of Engineering for Protect and Care at Facebook, and his November 2023 US Senate testimony on Meta and child safety
3. 3.Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta – NPR — Establishes his role as lead whistleblower witness in the 2026 federal child-safety trial against Meta; eight years working on safety at Meta across two stints
4. 4.Written Testimony of Arturo Bejar before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee – US Senate Judiciary Committee — Establishes detailed career history including responsibility for Site Integrity, Security Infrastructure, and Care at Facebook, and 2022 role as Technical Advisor to the Facebook Oversight Board

Expertise

Cited on

• Mental health

Stated areas of expertise

• Children's online safety
• Social media and teen mental health
• Platform safety design
• Cyberbullying prevention
• Technology whistleblowing
• Online harm reduction policy

Notable achievements

• Founded Facebook's 'Protect and Care' team, which developed tools to help teenagers deal with online bullying, suicidal ideation, and child safety from 2009 to 2015. Source ↗
• Testified before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law in November 2023, alleging Meta executives knowingly ignored evidence of harm to children and teenagers on Facebook and Instagram. Source ↗
• Served as the first and lead witness in the landmark federal child-safety trial against Meta in Oakland, California in August 2026, brought by 29 state attorneys general. Source ↗
• Co-authored report 'Teen Accounts, Broken Promises: How Instagram is Failing to Protect Minors' with Cybersecurity for Democracy, Fairplay, Molly Rose Foundation, and ParentsSOS. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “Because of Meta's lack of transparency, who knows how long this has been the case, and how many teens have experienced harm in the hands of Instagram as a result of Meta's negligence and misleading promises of safety, which create a false and dangerous sense of security.”

  former senior engineer at Meta · Mental health · 27 Aug 2026 · Instagram still poses risk to children despite new safety tools, says Meta whistleblower ↗

• “I felt that he created a false and misleading impression of Facebook's commitment to young people.”

  former Meta safety engineer · Mental health · 27 Aug 2026 · Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trial ↗

Source references

1. Instagram still poses risk to children despite new safety tools, says Meta whistleblowertheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trialtheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Websitehttps://www.arturobejar.org
• LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/arturo-b%C3%A9jarpublished here ↗

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.