A former executive who blew the whistle against Facebook has now targeted Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg, alleging that he wrapped himself in the American flag while secretly colluding with China.
On the 9th (local time), Sarah Wyn-Williams, former global policy head of Facebook's parent company Meta, testified at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Wyn-Williams said, "Zuckerberg projected himself as a patriot by wrapping himself in the American flag, but in reality, he was in cahoots with China." She claimed that Facebook previously collaborated "closely" with the Communist Party for the purpose of entering the Chinese market.
She mentioned, "While we are engaged in an acute arms race in artificial intelligence (AI) against China, Meta's executives lied to the American public, Congress, shareholders, and employees about their dealings with the Chinese Communist Party."
Wyn-Williams particularly claimed that as Meta attempted to enter China, it sought to win favor with the Communist Party, specifically by developing technology that would allow China to censor users in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and to delete the Facebook accounts of dissidents in the U.S.
She added, "I witnessed the Meta executives repeatedly undermine U.S. national security and betray American values," stating, "They secretly carried out these actions to curry favor with China."
Wyn-Williams joined Facebook in 2011 and was fired in 2017. This week's claims extend from revelations she made in her memoir "Careless People," published last month.
In her memoir, she claimed that Facebook developed a censorship system for Chinese services, determining what content to delete and even planned to have a "chief editor" who would shut down the site during "socially unstable" periods.
Although the memoir was hampered by a 'gag order' imposed by Meta in court, it quickly sold tens of thousands of copies and became a bestseller.
This series of revelations from the former Facebook executive came at a time when Zuckerberg was making efforts to align with the Trump administration's second term, including visiting Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Meta dismissed Wyn-Williams' congressional testimony as "unfounded claims detached from reality," stating, "Zuckerberg has publicly acknowledged our interest in entering China, and the fact is we are not currently doing business in China."