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Béjar’s daughter was 14 when she told him Instagram was failing to keep her safe. So when he became part of Meta’s ‘wellbeing team’, he knew he had to speak out – and his testimony cost it billions
The Social Reckoning hits cinemas this Friday, but the real world has already been working on a sequel – or rather, a threequel. Directed by Aaron Sorkin, the movie is a follow-up to The Social Network, detailing the further misadventures of Mark Zuckerberg and his social media empire, and in particular Frances Haugen, the employee who in 2021 leaked internal documents that appeared to show Facebook was aware of the harms its products had inflicted.
It’s no spoiler to reveal the film climaxes with Haugen’s testimony to the US Senate, on 5 October 2021. That very same day, Arturo Béjar, a consultant on the wellbeing team of Instagram (which is also owned by Facebook), hit send on a long-gestating email to Zuckerberg and other senior Facebook executives on a similar theme. “I wanted to bring to your attention what I believe is a critical gap in how we as a company approach harm, and how the people we serve experience it,” Béjar began, before laying out some shocking statistics from his team’s survey. For example: 24.4% of 13-15-year-olds on Instagram said they had received unwanted advances, and 21.8% said they had been the target of bullying on the platform in the past seven days. Furthermore, 51% of Instagram users said they had had a bad or harmful experience in the past seven days. Only 1% of them reported it, and of those, 2% had the content taken down – so just 0.02%. This was a far greater degree of harm than the company’s existing measurements suggested. Zuckerberg never replied.
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:00:15 GMT
The director talks about what she learnt from her mother, working with a rookie Tim Burton, and 20 years of her cult classic Marie Antoinette
Hello, I’m Cherry, I’m 14 and an aspiring film-maker. I love how your films capture what it feels like to be a young girl growing up. We hear so much about the famous men in your family, but how have the successful women in your family inspired and influenced you? Your films capture the experience of what it is to be a young girl in a way words often can’t. CherryEmma
That’s nice to hear, thank you. I feel like I got a lot from my mom about being true to yourself, following what you’re interested in and seeing the beauty in your surroundings. My mom always noticed odd details in life, so a lot of my films are made up of those kinds of things.
Your films beautifully capture the isolation of hotel rooms – spaces completely detached from a character’s past or future. If you were forced into that stillness and could choose to preserve only one cherished memory while erasing another for ever, what would they be? Malpractice1
It’s hard to pick a memory, but recently we had a party in Versailles for the anniversary of Marie Antoinette and New Order played. When they started playing Ceremony [from the soundtrack] and the lights went on, I just know that in the future when I have to remember a happy memory, that’s going to be it. Even painful memories are part of making you who you are, and you learn from them, so I can’t think of anything I would erase.
Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:16:27 GMT
Ava shared the initial cost but Ruth has forked out for repairs. You decide who’s on the wrong side of this in-tents debate?
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror
I paid for half of the tent, so I deserve equal use of it, even if we no longer live in the same country
Ava hasn’t used the tent in years, and I’ve stored it and paid for its upkeep. Surely I get first dibs?
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:00:12 GMT
After his mother died, Otto became convinced he’d been wronged by the forensic investigators – and that one of them was a fraud. The truth was even stranger
On a balmy, quiet evening in June 2020, Otto’s elderly mother, Doria, was fading in her Munich apartment. As she lay with her eyes closed, her pale face, framed by her white hair, was calm.
Otto, masked, gloved and draped in a sterile apron, dozed in a chair beside her. Otto, who sometimes goes by the name Rainer, and whose last name is only known as “Z” because of Germany’s strict privacy laws, was a doctor who had cared for his mother for years, ever since she had suffered a stroke and moved in with him. He described the course of that night to me. He woke to the sound of her short breath and tried to sit her upright. Her eyes were shut, and her lips pursed. She stopped breathing. Otto reached for his phone to call for help, but then Doria opened her eyes and stared into his. She smiled, drew one last deep breath, shut her eyes again, and lay still.
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 04:00:09 GMT
The UK state is dumping its responsibilities on our doorsteps, while green-lighting policies that lead us closer to crisis
Would you mind fixing the NHS? And while you’re at it, could you please build an anti-missile system in your garden? Then regulate the banks, replace the water mains, tax the very rich and use the proceeds to rebuild our schools. Well, come on people: what are you waiting for?
I exaggerate, but this isn’t very far from the approach taken by the government’s Prepare campaign. Crucial functions, way beyond the scope of individual action, are dumped on our doorsteps while those in power fail to act. As a result, our national resilience is arguably lower than at any time since the second world war. At the Labour conference last week, Andy Burnham promised “a Britain where people feel the country has got their back again”. To make good on that pledge, he will have to change almost everything.
George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 05:00:10 GMT
Talks between Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have set industry tongues wagging, with analysts saying the market is ripe for change
They may be two of the most recognisable brands in Britain, with a combined 188 years serving shoppers, but industry watchers agree that either Asda or Morrisons – or both – could disappear within a decade.
This week, it emerged that Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – the UK’s second- and sixth-largest supermarket chains – had held merger talks between last November and February, before the larger player decided to walk away.
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 10:26:10 GMT
Judge makes ruling after former prince brought judicial review of operation linked to Jeffrey Epstein investigation
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has won his legal challenge against Thames Valley police over search warrants that led to his arrest.
The former prince brought a judicial review of the legality of the force’s actions and those of the central criminal court, which granted the warrants.
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:23:23 GMT
Men aged 32 and 36 detained on suspicion of trespass, causing criminal damage and entering a prohibited place
Two Latvian men were arrested in the early hours of Thursday after they were discovered inside the perimeter of RAF Molesworth, a Cambridgeshire base used by the US military and Nato for intelligence operations.
The men, 32 and 36, were picked up at 2am inside the base in an investigation that began four hours earlier when military police discovered an abandoned vehicle outside the facility.
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:53:24 GMT
Jane Adetoro, Christina Walters and Rebecca Walters from London visited late mother’s former home shortly before their deaths in May
Three sisters who drowned in the sea in Brighton collectively decided to end their own lives, a coroner has ruled.
The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, all from London, were recovered from the sea off Brighton in the early hours of 13 May.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:11:01 GMT
Exclusive: Letter to PM, also signed by Sally Phillips, says reforms will unfairly remove children’s legal protections
Campaigners are calling on Andy Burnham to abandon the core elements of the government’s reforms to special educational needs provision, arguing they unfairly remove children’s legal protections.
A group of disabled children, parents and experts, led by the broadcaster Chris Packham, have written a letter calling for the prime minister to gut the plans laid out under his predecessor, Keir Starmer.
Continue reading...Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:30:23 GMT