Former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams has told the United States Senate that the company undermined U.S. national security in its dealings with China’s government.
Wynn-Williams was a director of global public policy at Facebook, now known as Meta, from 2011 to 2017. She was called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism about the company’s involvement with China’s ruling Communist Party.
“During my time at Meta, company executives lied about what they were doing with the Chinese Communist Party to employees, shareholders, Congress, and the American public,” Wynn-Williams told senators.
"I saw Meta executives repeatedly undermine U.S. national security and betray American values. They did these things in secret to win favour with Beijing and build an $18 billion dollar business in China.”
Careless People, Wynn-Williams’ book about her time at Meta, has reached the top of Amazon’s best-seller list since its release last month. The account says that Meta ignored concerns about damaging democracy, and argues that Wynn-Williams was fired after reporting sexual harassment by then-vice president for global public policy Joel Kaplan.
Meta has denied Wynn-Williams’ claims. The company sought to block Careless People’s release, and prevented her from promoting the book following an arbitration hearing.
According to Wynn-Williams’ Senate testimony, Meta deleted the Facebook account of a prominent Chinese dissident on the orders of China’s government.
The company ignored warnings that its proposed fibre optic cable network would allow China’s government to intercept American citizens’ personal data, Wynn-Williams said. She alleged that Meta had begun briefing China’s Communist Party on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence from 2015.
Wynn-Williams also said Meta had deliberately targeted teenage users with advertisements when they were in a vulnerable emotional state.
Meta will stand trial next week in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission, which has argued its purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp prevented competition from these apps. If the agency is successful, Meta could be forced to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp.
Meta’s (NASDAQ: META) share price closed at US$585.77, up from its previous close at $510.45. Its market capitalisation is $1.48 trillion.
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