Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta

Business Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta August 19, 20265:20 PM ET John Ruwitch Former Meta engineer Arturo Bejar leaves the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building & United States Courthouse as Meta is on trial over social media addiction in Oakland, California, on August 19, 2026. KARL MONDON/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption KARL MONDON/AFP via Getty Images Sign up for alerts on breaking news and exclusive reporting from NPR Meta was infused with a culture in which employees obsessed over user numbers and consistently pushed safety to the side, according to Arturo Béjar, a former employee turned whistleblower, who testified today in the landmark child safety trial against the social media company. Only one man had the ability to change that, Béjar said: CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But he didn't. "At the end of the day, it was the company culture that Mark had created that made it so that it was practically impossible to deliver features that addressed the wellbeing and safety issues that we've been talking about," he said. Sponsor Message Business 'Profits won.' The child safety trial against Meta kicks off in federal court Béjar is a linchpin witness for a consortium of states led by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey that sued Meta, alleging violations of consumer and child data protection laws, and that the company lied to the public about risks its platforms posed. The attorneys for the states say Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to hook young users and to keep them on site longer thanks to features such as infinite scrolling and the "like" button. Meta has denied the allegations. In his opening statement on Tuesday, attorney Paul Schmidt argued that the company was sensitive to the risks to teens, sought to address them and did not deceive the public about them. The state attorneys have not yet said if they will call Zuckerberg as a witness. Testifying in federal court in Oakland, California, for a...