A former Meta executive dropped bombshell allegations during Senate testimony Wednesday, claiming the social media giant actively worked with Chinese authorities to censor content on its platforms.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, who served as Meta's director of Global Public Policy from 2011 to 2018, told senators that the company provided "custom built censorship tools" to the Chinese Communist Party while undermining U.S. national security interests.
During her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, Wynn-Williams detailed how Meta implemented a "virality counter" system that flagged posts exceeding 10,000 views for review by a "chief editor" - a practice she said extended beyond mainland China to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In one notable incident from 2017, Wynn-Williams revealed that Chinese dissident Guo Wengui was removed from Facebook after pressure from Chinese officials. The company claimed at the time the removal was due to sharing personal information.
The whistleblower also alleged that CEO Mark Zuckerberg was deeply invested in maintaining strong business ties with China, even taking weekly Mandarin language lessons with employees. She estimated Meta's business operations in China to be worth approximately $18 billion.
"The greatest trick Mark Zuckerberg ever pulled was wrapping the American flag around himself and calling himself a patriot and saying he didn't offer services in China, while he spent the last decade building an $18 billion business there," Wynn-Williams stated.
Senator Josh Hawley, who chairs the subcommittee, condemned Zuckerberg's actions, saying the Meta CEO "made censorship his business model." Hawley has formally requested Zuckerberg to testify before the subcommittee.
Meta strongly disputed the allegations, with a spokesperson calling Wynn-Williams' testimony "divorced from reality and riddled with false claims." The company maintains it does not currently operate its services in China.
The revelations come amid increasing U.S. scrutiny of China's influence on American technology companies and broader national security concerns. Wynn-Williams recently detailed her experiences at Meta in her memoir "Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism."