(José Niño, Headline USA) Meta, the parent company of Facebook, allegedly made a concerted effort to create a censorship system in order to bring millions of internet users in China into Facebook’s fold.
According to a new whistleblower complaint from Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former global policy director at the company, Meta was doing everything possible to enter the Chinese market. It was even willing to let the Chinese Communist Party oversee all social media content appearing in the country and clamp down on dissenting opinions.
Meta created a censorship system for China in 2015 and had plans of installing a “chief editor” who would decide what content to delete and could pull the plug on the whole website during times of “social unrest,” per a copy of the 78-page complaint that The Washington Post obtained.
On top of that, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg agreed to suppress the account of a prominent Chinese dissident living in the United States after being pressured by a leading Chinese Communist Party official the company hoped would help them gain access to the Chinese market, per the complaint. The complaint was filed in April 2024 to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
When asked about Meta’ attempts to enter the Chinese markets, Meta executives “stonewalled and provided non-responsive or misleading information” to investors and American regulators on multiple occasions, per the complaint.
To strengthen her case, Wynn-Williams used internal Meta documents about the social media giant’s plans. Wynn-Williams was fired from her job in 2017. She is also slated to publish a memoir later this week highlighting her time at the company, titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.”
According to a memo featured in the complaint, Meta leaders were urged by CCP officials to host Chinese users’ data to local data centers. Wynn-Williams argues that the use of these centers would have facilitated the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to covertly acquire the personal data of its citizens.
“Once data is stored locally, companies are pressured to comply with Beijing’s demands or risk losing access to Chinese consumers.”
With the United States entering in a heated competition with China over the development of artificial intelligence, concerns remain about Facebook’s previous efforts to align itself with Chinese interests.
“One of the top priorities for President Trump is the West winning this critical [AI] race and yet for many years Meta has been working hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party, briefing them on the latest technological developments and lying about it,” said Wynn-Williams, who is currently a technology policy consultant. “People deserve to know the truth.”
Meta has strongly denied the allegations.
“This is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” the company reportedly said in a statement. “Whistleblower status protects communications to the government, not disgruntled activists trying to sell books.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
