Facebook’s algorithms are designed to help like-minded users find each another and connect. However, that mission can backfire in a big way when those users have bad intentions. According to one ex-Facebook employee, he repeatedly warned the company’s leadership that the platform’s “People You May Know” tool was fueling child exploitation. However, he says that his warnings went unheeded.

The former Facebook employee, engineering director David Erb, ran a team that looked at unsafe user behavior on the platform. During his research, he discovered that the People You May Know algorithm was the most popular way for adults to target children on the platform.

“It was a hundred times worse than any of us expected,” Erb recently told The Wall Street Journal. “There were millions of pedophiles targeting tens of millions of children.”

According to Erb, he proposed the feature should stop recommending minors connect with adults. However, Facebook’s leadership allegedly rejected the plan. The company has also doubled down on end-to-end encryption, which many child safety advocates say could be used to provide cover to predators. For its part, Facebook has said that it invested in ways to protect young users even with encryption. However, reports like Erb’s cast doubt on how serious the company really is about tackling the problem.

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