Meta worked 'hand in glove' with China on censorship, betrayed US: Whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams

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A former Meta executive told US senators that the tech giant compromised national security to grow its business in China, and worked "hand in glove" with the Chinese government to censor dissent on its platforms.

Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former global public policy director at Facebook, testified at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that Meta executives prioritised profits over safety and US interests, CBS News reported.

"I saw Meta executives repeatedly undermine US national security and betray American values," Wynn-Williams said in her opening remarks.

She alleged that Meta, formerly Facebook, gave the Chinese Communist Party access to user data, including that of Americans. When engineers flagged potential data security risks, company leadership—including CEO Mark Zuckerberg—reportedly showed little concern.

Wynn-Williams also claimed that Facebook and Instagram, Meta's popular social networking platforms, aided Beijing in developing censorship tools.

"Mark Zuckerberg pledged himself a free speech champion. Yet I witnessed Meta working hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party to construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics," she said.