A former integrity and security researcher at Meta told a U.S. court in a sworn deposition, testimony given under oath before trial, that the company ordered evidence about harassment and sexual exploitation of minors deleted "on more than one occasion" from its platforms. The claim comes from Jason Sattizahn, who worked in the virtual reality unit of the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and was reported by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Wednesday (26), the same day Meta agreed to pay up to US$ 17.1 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by 47 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories over social media platforms designed to be addictive.
According to the deposition, made public on August 18, there was a direct order to erase "documentary trails" that could put the company's brands at risk. In plain terms, the accusation is that Meta treated internal records like compromising receipts: paper to burn before the auditor knocks. Sattizahn had already testified before the U.S. Senate in 2025, when he said he saw child abuse inside virtual reality environments and that Meta blocked internal research on the subject.
The timeline helps explain the incentive at play. According to the former employee, Meta began treating investigations into harms affecting young people "as brand risks" after whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal reports in late 2021, including studies on the harmful effects of social networks on teenagers' mental health. Meta's business model is selling attention: the more screen time, the more ads. Documents showing the product addicts children or exposes them to predators threaten that engine directly, because they become ammunition for juries and regulators.
Meta's side and the billion-dollar settlement
The company rejects the accusations. "Research has not shown a clear link between teenagers' use of social media and a lack of well-being," Meta's lawyer Paul Schmidt told Folha. The settlement announced on Wednesday effectively ends the trial that was under way at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, where California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey were seeking around US$ 200 billion. The case gathered 29 states accusing Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to addict young users, misleading the public about platform safety and improperly collecting data from children under 13. In the first week of the trial, the jury had already heard from two other former employees, engineer Arturo Béjar and researcher Elena Davis, according to The National News Desk.
What we still do not know
For now, what exists is Sattizahn's word under oath. It is not known which documents were deleted, who in the chain of command gave the order, or whether the records can be recovered. Meta admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, and deals of this kind usually come with confidentiality clauses that may keep part of the answers out of public view. It is also unclear whether other witnesses back his account.
What to watch from here: the final terms of the settlement, which should detail product changes such as usage time limits and a "school mode" on Instagram; the possible release of Sattizahn's full deposition; and the ripple effects in Brazil, where regulators are already going after TikTok and Discord over failures to protect children. If the evidence-destruction claim is confirmed, the case changes nature and starts to involve possible obstruction of justice as well.