Hawley exposes Meta’s complicity with China
WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) chaired a hearing in the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism featuring Facebook corporate whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams.
Wynn-Williams was Facebook’s first director of public policy, leading the company’s outreach efforts around the world. She became a whistleblower when she exposed explosive details of her company’s long-term collusion with the Chinese Communist Party.
Hawley said the company went “scorched earth” to keep her from telling what she knows, including suing her, slapping her with a gag order, and forcing courts to order her tell-all memoir, Careless People, removed from shelves.
“This is a hearing that Facebook has tried desperately to prevent,” Hawley said. “Facebook is one of the most powerful companies in the world and they have stopped at absolutely nothing to prevent today’s testimony.”
Senator Hawley asked Wynn-Williams to detail Meta’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party and how they planned to store American user data in China, giving the CCP access to American data.
“This is exactly contrary to what Facebook has represented for years. [And] here they’re willing to build data centers [to] store data in China. They’re willing explicitly to give the Chinese government access to it,” Hawley said. “And if that means that American user data is also compromised, they’re willing to do that, too. All for profits in China. There was virtually nothing they weren’t willing to do.”
Senator Hawley is a leading voice on the dangers of Big Tech and the need for accountability. He has called for Americans’ right to protect themselves from companies’ exploitive use of artificial intelligence, advocated for citizens’ ability to sue Big Tech, and exposed Big Tech as willing collaborators in censorship. Last year during a hearing, Senator Hawley forced Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to apologize to families of child exploitation victims.
Watch today’s full subcommittee hearing here.