Whistleblower Claims Meta is Complicit in China’s Censorship During Congressional Testimony
A former executive from Facebook has accused the company of assisting China in ‘out-competing’ U.S. firms.
On April 9, a former Facebook executive testified before Congress that she observed her ex-colleagues “consistently undermine U.S. national security and betray American values” in their interactions with China.
Sarah Wynn-Williams stated before a Senate Judiciary Committee panel, “They engaged in these actions secretly to gain favor with Beijing and establish an $18 billion enterprise in China.” Meta has refuted these claims.
Wynn-Williams held the position of director of global public policy for Facebook, now Meta, from 2011 to 2017. During her tenure, she asserted that Meta executives “deceived everyone—employees, shareholders, Congress, and the American public—regarding their activities with the Chinese Communist Party.”
In her memoir “Careless People,” Wynn-Williams detailed allegations against Meta, claiming the company collaborated “hand-in-glove” with the CCP to develop and utilize censorship tools against critics of the regime.
She mentioned, “When Beijing insisted that Facebook remove the account of a notable Chinese dissident residing in the U.S., they complied and subsequently misled Congress about the situation during a Senate hearing,” referencing the removal of the Facebook page belonging to Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui in 2017.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who chaired the panel, indicated that the action was taken following documented pressure from the CCP to eliminate the page.
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Additionally, Wynn-Williams claimed that Meta granted the CCP access to user data—including information from Americans—and provided briefings on artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies “to enable China to compete more effectively against American companies.”
She noted, “You can draw a direct line” linking these briefings to reports indicating that China is creating an AI tool for military applications based on Meta’s publicly available Llama model.
A spokesperson for Meta told The Epoch Times in an email that Wynn-Williams’s congressional testimony was “detached from reality and filled with inaccuracies.”
“While Mark Zuckerberg himself famously expressed our interest in providing services in China, and these details were broadly reported over a decade ago, the reality is this: We do not operate our services in China today,” the spokesperson clarified.
Hawley appeared more inclined to side with Wynn-Williams, remarking that Meta “desperately tried” to hinder him from holding the hearing.
“They have employed every possible measure to prevent today’s testimony. They have fiercely opposed it,” he stated. “They have taken a ‘scorched earth’ approach to stop her from sharing what she knows.”
He challenged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before the committee and address Wynn-Williams’s allegations.
“Stop trying to silence her,” he urged. “Stop trying to gag her. Stop hiding behind your lawyers and the immense legal fees you’re imposing on her.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the panel, concurred, asserting that Zuckerberg should “come before us and reveal the truth.”
