Meta undermined US national security, whistleblower will testify
A Meta whistleblower is expected to testify before Congress on Wednesday that she witnessed company executives "repeatedly undermine U.S. national security and betray American values."
Sarah Wynn-Williams, who served as the director of Global Public Policy at Facebook, now Meta, for nearly seven years starting in 2011, is expected to tell the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism that the company's executives "did these things in secret to win favor with Beijing and build an $18 billion dollar business in China."
"We are engaged in a high-stakes AI arms race against China, and 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 will say, according to a copy of her opening statement obtained by Fox News Digital.
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The statement said she came to "set the record straight about these illegal and dangerous activities."
"Meta’s dishonesty started with a betrayal of core American values. Mark Zuckerberg pledged himself a free speech champion," Wynn-Williams will say. "Yet I witnessed Meta work ‘hand in glove’ with the Chinese Communist Party to construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored critics of the Chinese Communist Party."
Wynn-Williams alleges that Facebook deleted the account of a "prominent Chinese dissident living on American soil" at Beijing's request and then lied to Congress about it. Besides their "willingness to censor," the whistleblower will say she "watched as executives decided to provide the Chinese Communist Party with access to Meta user data – including that of Americans."
"Meta does not dispute these facts. They can’t. I have the documents. As recently as this Monday, they claimed they do not operate services in China. Another lie," Wynn-Williams will say. "In fact, they began offering products and services in China as early as 2014. That hasn’t stopped. Their own SEC filings from last year show that China is now Meta’s second biggest market."
"Meanwhile, Meta’s AI model – Llama – has contributed significantly to Chinese advances in AI technologies like DeepSeek," Wynn-Williams will say. "Facebook’s secret mission to get into China was called ‘Project Aldrin’ and was restricted to need-to-know staff. There was no bridge too far. Meta built a physical pipeline connecting the United States and China. Meta executives ignored warnings that this would provide backdoor access to the Chinese Communist Party, allowing them to intercept the personal data and private messages of American citizens."
In a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said that Wynn-Williams’ prepared testimony is "divorced from reality and riddled with false claims."
"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," Stone added.
Zuckerberg has been trying to curry favor with Trump, but the Federal Trade Commission and congressional Republicans continue their criticism of the tech CEO.
U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, have repeatedly sounded the alarm about another tech company, TikTok, over national security concerns related to its Beijing ties, and Trump has suggested using tariffs as a negotiating tactic in forcing the sale of the company to an American owner.
Wynn-Williams will argue that the "only reason China does not currently have access to US user data through this pipeline is because Congress stepped in."
Her statement argues that "Meta started briefing the Chinese Communist Party as early as 2015" and those "briefings focused on critical emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence."
"The explicit goal being to help China outcompete American companies," Wynn-Williams will say. "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. 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.’ The truth about what has gone on in China matters."
Wynn-Williams says she filed a shareholder resolution asking Meta’s Board to investigate its activity in China. She also filed whistleblower complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice. Her statement says Meta publicly committed in 2018 not to pursue forced arbitration but proceeded to bring a case against her for "hundreds of millions of dollars. She will tell lawmakers that the company now has "a legal gag order that silences me even as Meta and their proxies spread lies about me" – an order she argues is "so expansive that it prohibits me from speaking with Members of Congress."
"The measure of how important these truths are is directly proportional to the ferocity of Meta’s efforts to censor and intimidate me," she will tell lawmakers.
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"This gag order was sought by a company whose CEO claims to be a champion of free speech," Sarah Wynn-Williams will say. "The American people deserve to know the truth. 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. I am here at considerable personal risk because you have the power and the authority to hold them accountable."