He issued this rebuke against the tech giant during a Nov. 7 hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which touched on "social media and the teen mental health crisis." Hawley and other senators heard testimony from Arturo Bejar, former director of engineering for Meta's Protect and Care team. Bejar's daughter had also been a target of online sexual predators, according to LifeSiteNews.
"Facebook, among others, actively coordinated with the present administration to censor First Amendment protected speech. Not this garbage that is not protected by anything in our Constitution, but First Amendment protected speech," Hawley argued.
"Here's what gets me. Facebook devoted all kinds of resources and people – actual human people – to doing things like monitoring posts on COVID-19 vaccine efficacy. But the things that your daughter experienced, this ring of pedophiles – Facebook just can't find the time for."
Bejar told the Missouri senator that on Oct. 5, 2021, he emailed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg that "one in eight children" on Facebook had received sexually inappropriate messages on the platform within the "last seven days." Bejar also added in his correspondence that nearly one in three children had experienced similar "sexual advances" in general.
The witness told Hawley that despite the concerning findings he outlined in the email, neither Zuckerberg nor Sandberg met with him to discuss the message. This led Hawley to accuse the two executives of turning a blind eye to information they did not deem favorable to the company.
The senator told the committee that Meta's failure to address the issue of child exploitation on Facebook was especially egregious, in light of the Murthy v. Missouri lawsuit (formerly Missouri v. Biden). The complaint accused Meta of censoring conservative political speech at the behest of the Biden administration. (Related: Missouri v. Biden seeing tremendous progress as DOJ gets EVISCERATED for clueless disregard towards First Amendment.)
Bejar: Meta's own ALGORITHMS responsible for PEDOPHILIA
During his testimony, Bejar also mentioned how Meta's own algorithms used in two of its platforms – Facebook and Instagram – often facilitated pedophilia and connected like-minded nefarious individuals. This followed Hawley citing a June 7 story by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about this matter.
The WSJ story saw in-house researchers team up with their counterparts from Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who examined Instagram. The team of researchers found that Instagram's algorithm "helps connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage-sex content."
According to Bejar, Meta's algorithms funnel nearly all of its resources into combatting a "very narrow definition of harm." Because of this narrow application of what is defined as harm, users who like or follow pedophilic content will see more of such – courtesy of this algorithm. Given that it does not detect an issue with the content, the algorithm will continue promoting questionable content.
He also pointed out that both Facebook and Instagram users can report "sexually inappropriate" advertisements. This prompts the algorithm to stop showing the said ad, and any other similar ads, to the user.
Aside from this, users can also report accounts to the company for dealing in child exploitation material or behavior. Bejar unfortunately disclosed that Meta only acts on a "fraction of a percent" of the aforementioned complaints. Moreover, such a reporting system does not exist for users sending sexually explicit messages to children – leaving the latter with little to no recourse in the event that they are contacted by a user looking to exploit them.
Hawley then asked Bejar if much of the problem lies with Meta's shift in its moderation methods in the mid-to-late 2010s. The Big Tech firm adopted an automated process of content monitoring driven mainly by artificial intelligence (AI). Earlier, it utilized actual human employees to sift through reports and online posts.
Bejar responded that he was no longer employed by Meta during the period it transitioned to AI for content moderation. He nevertheless commented that AI-driven systems are "only as good as their inputs," which he said are lacking on Meta's platforms.
Watch Dr. Vernon Coleman explains how ruthless censorship concealed the COVID-19 genocide below.
This video is from the Vigilant Citizen channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Facebook bans hashtag #savethechildren – Big Tech now protecting PEDOPHILES.
PEDO PLATFORM: Instagram's algorithms promote a "vast pedophile network," report reveals.
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