Sarah Wynn-Williams, former global public policy director at Facebook, testified today about the company’s relationship with China before the US Senate.
According to Wynn-Williams, the company, now known as Meta, works directly with China’s Community Party (CCP) to “harm US national security and betray American values,” she said.
She claims that Facebook has created a custom built censorship tool for CCP. This provided the extensive power of the “Chief Editor” for content moderation at a point where you could choose to turn off services entirely on certain regions of China or on certain dates, such as the Tiananmen Square Massacre anniversary.
Meta denied Win Williams’ allegations.
“Sarah Wynn Williams’ testimony is divorced from reality and is plagued by false claims,” Meta spokesman Ryan Daniels said in a statement from TechCrunch. “Mark Zuckerberg himself is public about his interest in providing our services in China, and details were widely reported over a decade ago, but the truth is this: we don’t operate our services in China today.”
Wynn-Williams’ testimony was highly anticipated. In March, she published a book on Facebook about her time, dubbed “The Careless People: Attention Stories of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.”
The day after the book was published, Meta won a temporary decision from the arbitrator. The arbitrator said it violated the non-inheritance clause that Wynn Williams signed when he left the company. However, Meta’s desire to limit the reach of books appears to have the opposite effect. Now, the book is number two on the New York Times bestseller list under non-fiction.
Meta told TechCrunch that the arbitration order does not prohibit her from speaking to Congress and that the company is not intending to interfere with her legal rights. The company also said it is no secret that it is operating in China.
Towards the end of Wynn-Williams’ tenure in 2017, Facebook launched a photo-sharing app called Colorful Balloons in China, and an app called Moments. Meta notes that this has been reported previously, disclosing in government applications that it will generate advertising revenue from China despite services such as Facebook and Instagram being banned there.
For every 10K filings of Meta, revenues for 2024 went from $136.9 billion and $7.4 billion in 2024 and 2022.
Wynn-Williams claims that Meta has deepened its relationship with the Chinese government.
She shared the documents with Congress, and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) showed several edited versions of these documents at the hearing.
In one email, it appeared that Facebook executives had discussed whether CCP access would grant access to user data in China and Hong Kong.
“It appears Facebook was willing to provide the Chinese government with data from users of Hong Kong users when democratic protesters were opposed to Beijing’s crackdown,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT) asked Sen. Wynn Williams if that was true. She said so.
“As part of the censorship tool developed, there was a virality counter, so whenever your content gets over 10,000 views, it automatically triggers it to be reviewed by something called the Chief Editor,” she said. “What’s particularly surprising is that viral counters were not just set up, but they were also revitalized in Hong Kong and Taiwan.”
Senator Blumenthal pointed out that Zuckerberg had previously sworn under oath that Facebook had built a censorship tool to enter the Chinese market.
Wynn-Williams added that when Meta shares Chinese user data with the Chinese government from a technical standpoint, there is no way to avoid sharing user data from Americans who interact with Chinese users.
She also argued that Meta had explained to China about developments with a variety of technologies, such as AI and facial recognition.
“Mark Zuckerberg, the biggest trick he’d ever pulled, wrapped the American flag around him, calling himself a patriot and said he didn’t provide services in China.
“And he continues to wrap the flag around him as we move into the next era of artificial intelligence,” she added.
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