A former Meta employee-turned-whistleblower has alleged that the tech giant quietly courted the Chinese government by proposing to set up a custom censorship system, crack down on high-profile Chinese dissidents, and give access to Hong Kong users’ data — in exchange for entry into the lucrative China market.
The allegations were levelled by Sarah Wynn-Williams, Meta’s former global policy director, according to a report by Washington Post. In a 76-page-long whistleblower complaint filed before the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April 2024, Wynn-Williams reportedly detailed Meta’s alleged efforts to launch Facebook in China by gaining the support of the Chinese Communist Party between 2014 to 2019.
In 2014, when Meta was still known as Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg allegedly put together a new team under the code-name ‘Project Aldrin’ to work on developing a version of the company’s services that could legally be offered in China.
Wynn-Williams provided internal company documents as evidence of her allegations in the complaint, as per the report. She was terminated from her position at Meta in 2017 “for poor performance”.
The new whistleblower allegations against Meta come just days ahead of the launch of Wynn-Williams’ new memoir titled Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.
Despite being one of the world’s largest social media markets, China has blocked access to several US-based platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and X. The whistleblower allegations run counter to Meta’s public stance that China threatens a free and open internet.
In February this year, Zuckerberg pledged to work with US President Donald Trump to “push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.” “China has censored our apps from even working in the country,” he added.
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What are the whistleblower allegations against Meta?
Censorship framework: As per the report, Wynn-Williams claimed that Facebook in 2015, had proposed to develop a specially designed review system for censoring posts in China. Under the alleged censorship system, the company had plans to appoint a ‘chief editor’ tasked with reviewing and deciding whether content posted by China-based users, including foreigners traveling to the country, was “consistent with applicable law”.
Meta also allegedly suggested that Hony Capital, a Chinese private-equity firm, be given the responsibility of deciding what content to remove. The proposal also had a provision that would have allowed the Chinese government to shut down the entire Facebook platform during times of “social unrest”.
In addition to automated censorship tools, Meta allegedly agreed to recruit at least 300 content moderators under the proposed framework.
Targeting dissidents: According to the complaint, Zuckerberg allegedly bowed to pressure from a high-ranking Chinese official and agreed to restrict the Facebook account and Page belonging to a high-profile Chinese dissident living in the US in 2017.
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The targeted individual was identified as Guo Wengui, a wealthy Chinese businessman and critic of the Chinese government. “If there is nothing we can do [about Guo’s account], there will be an impact on our cooperation,” Meta officials were quoted as saying in leaked internal company documents.
Data localisation: Citing an internal memo, the complaint alleged that Chinese government officials pressured Meta executives to host Chinese users’ data in local data centres. An email by Meta’s team negotiating with the Chinese government allegedly stated, “In exchange for the ability to establish operations in China, FB will agree to grant the Chinese government access to Chinese users’ data — including Hongkongese users’ data.”
Anti-TikTok campaign: In her complaint, Wynn-Williams also alleged that Meta had covertly funded a non-profit organisation called American Edge that launched campaigns criticising China and TikTok, the social media app owned by China-based ByteDance. Despite its popularity, TikTok’s fate in the US has been up in the air since a law requiring ByteDance to either sell it on national security grounds or face a ban.
Meta believes that a TikTok ban would end up benefiting its businesses. “They [TikTok] are one of our main competitors. That’s a card we get to turn to,” Zuckerberg reportedly said at a company-wide meeting earlier this year.
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How has Meta responded to the whistleblower allegations?
By 2019, Meta had reportedly given up on its ambitions of operating in China as the latter’s trade battle with the US intensified under President Trump during his first term.
In a response, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone rejected the allegations as it was “no secret” that the company was interested in operating in China in the past. “This was widely reported beginning a decade ago. We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we’d explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019,” Stone was quoted as saying.
However, Wynn-Williams has maintained that “people deserve to know the truth.”
“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,” she was quoted as saying.
