A Meta whistleblower testified before Congress Wednesday about how she witnessed the company repeatedly “undermine U.S. national security.”
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook employee who released an explosive memoir last month accusing the social media giant of retaliating against her after she reported sexual misconduct, testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism with another revelatory allegation: the company was engaged in “illegal and dangerous activities” with China.
Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook for seven years, starting in 2011. As director of global public policy, she worked closely with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg. Throughout her tenure, she saw company executives “undermine U.S. national security” and said they “lied about what they were doing with the Chinese Communist Party to employees, shareholders, Congress and the American public.”
She he alleged that Meta executives worked hard to “win favor” with leaders in Beijing to build a $18 billion business in China.
A Meta spokesperson slammed her remarks as being “divorced from reality and riddled with false claims” in a statement shared with The Independent prior to the hearing. “While Mark Zuckerberg himself was public about our interest in offering our services in China and details were widely reported beginning over a decade ago, the fact is this: we do not operate our services in China today.”
Wynn-Williams told Senators that she saw executives working “‘hand in glove’” with the Chinese Communist Party to construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics.
The whistleblower also testified that Meta provided China with access to users’ data, including that of Americans.
“Meta has been willing to compromise its values, sacrifice the security of its users, and undermine American interests to build its China business. It’s been happening for years, covered up by lies, and continues to this day,” she told the subcommittee.
Meta began offering products and services in China as early as 2014, she claims. The tech giant constructed a “physical pipeline” connecting the United States and China that would have allowed the Chinese Communist Party to intercept Americans’ personal data.
“The only reason China does not currently have access to U.S. user data through this pipeline is because Congress stepped in,” she said.
The following year, the company started briefing the Chinese Communist Party. These briefings included discussions around critical emerging technologies, including AI, with the “explicit goal being to help China outcompete American companies,” Wynn-Williams said.
“There’s a straight line you can draw from these briefings to the recent revelations that China is developing AI models for military use, relying on Meta’s Llama model,” she testified. “Meta’s internal documents describe their sales pitch for why China should allow them in the market by quote ‘help[ing] China increase global influence and promote the China Dream.’”
In her book Careless People, Wynn-Williams accused the tech giant of firing her in 2017 after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against her boss Joel Kaplan, who was then-vice president for global public policy.
Meta previously told The Independent in a statement that she was fired for “poor performance and toxic behavior” and noted that an investigation into the incident determined that she made “misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.” Kaplan now serves as chief global affairs officer.
After her memoir was published in March, Meta sought to prevent her from further promoting the book, claiming that the allegations violated a non-disparagement clause in her severance agreement.
The company described Wynn-Williams’ allegations detailed in her memoir as “a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives.”
A legal representative for Wynn-Williams shared a statement with The Independent last month: “Meta has made a number of false and inconsistent statements about Sarah since the news of her memoir broke. The events that led to her departure from Meta are described in detail in the memoir, and while Meta’s statements are trying to mislead the public, the book speaks for itself.”
One day after the tech giant filed an arbitration demand, an arbitrator temporarily prohibited her from amplifying or repeating “disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments.”
In her remarks on Wednesday, Wynn-Williams described the block as a “legal gag order” that includes speaking to lawmakers. Still, she said, “I am here at considerable personal risk because you have the power and the authority to hold them accountable.”
In his March 12 arbitration decision, the arbitrator clarified that the order didn’t prevent Wynn-Williams from “giving any testimony” or “cooperating” with a government agency during its investigation. There was never any prohibition on her testifying to Congress, Meta has said.
The Independent has reached out to a representative for Wynn-Williams for clarification.
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