Good Questions for the Press and Others to Ask Social Media Companies
Published alongside his 2023 Senate testimony, this short guide is aimed at journalists, regulators, and other outside parties trying to evaluate whether a social media company's safety claims are substantive or superficial. Béjar argues that because these companies run on metrics, a harm that a company has not built a data framework around effectively does not register with its executives, whatever public statements say. He lays out specific questions to ask — about actual prevalence data, dedicated staffing levels, and whether safety features are turned on by default even when they reduce engagement — using unwanted sexual advances toward teens as his running example of how to press past vague reassurances toward verifiable specifics.
Bejar, Arturo. 'Good Questions for the Press and Others to Ask Social Media Companies.' Supporting document, arturobejar.org, published with Senate testimony, November 7, 2023.