Learn Ex-Meta Govt’s Draft Testimony She Plans to Give Congress

Sarah Wynn-Williams, Fb’s former head of world public coverage, plans to testify to Congress on Wednesday, detailing allegations that Meta executives helped China advance its AI capabilities and undermine US nationwide safety.

Wynn-Williams, who labored at Fb between 2011 and 2017, filed a whistleblower grievance in March with the Securities and Trade Fee. The corporate, now Meta, stated she was fired eight years in the past for poor efficiency.

She additionally printed a memoir that month, “Careless Folks,” the place she made allegations about Meta’s firm tradition and China operations. A spokesperson beforehand advised Enterprise Insider that the “false and defamatory guide ought to by no means have been printed.”

On the heels of the guide’s launch, Meta gained an emergency arbitration determination that briefly stopped Wynn-Williams and her writer from selling the memoir or making disparaging statements towards her former employer.

The ruling didn’t cease the guide from turning into a No. 1 bestseller.

“This gag order was sought by an organization whose CEO claims to be a champion of free speech,” Wynn-Williams’ draft testimony says. “The American folks need to know the reality.”

“Sarah Wynn-Williams’ testimony is divorced from actuality and riddled with false claims,” a Meta spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to BI. “Whereas Mark Zuckerberg himself was public about our curiosity in providing our companies in China and particulars have been broadly reported starting over a decade in the past, the very fact is that this: we don’t function our companies in China right this moment.”

Representatives for Wynn-Williams declined to remark.

A draft of Wynn-Williams’ opening assertion, which Enterprise Insider obtained, consists of allegations that Meta established a clandestine relationship with China, offering consumer information to the Chinese language Communist Occasion and establishing a “bodily pipeline” between the US and China.

Throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period, the administration killed a venture from Google and Fb that will have established an 8,000-mile-long broadband cable between the US and Hong Kong.

Under is Wynn-Williams’ draft opening assertion she plans to offer earlier than a Senate Judiciary subcommittee:

Chairman Hawley, Rating Member Durbin and distinguished members of the Committee, thanks for the chance to talk with you right this moment.

My title is Sarah Wynn-Williams, and I served as Director of International Public Coverage at Fb, now Meta, for practically seven years beginning in 2011. All through these seven years, I noticed Meta executives repeatedly undermine US nationwide safety and betray American values. They did this stuff in secret to win favor with Beijing and construct an $18 billion greenback enterprise in China.

We’re engaged in a high-stakes AI arms race towards China. And through my time at Meta, firm executives lied about what they have been doing with the Chinese language Communist Occasion to staff, shareholders, Congress, and the American public. I sit earlier than this Committee right this moment to set the file straight about these unlawful and harmful actions.

Meta’s dishonesty began with a betrayal of core American values. Mark Zuckerberg pledged himself a free speech champion. But I witnessed Meta work “hand in glove” with the Chinese language Communist Occasion to assemble and take a look at custom-built censorship instruments that silenced and censored their critics. When Beijing demanded that Fb delete the account of a distinguished Chinese language dissident dwelling on American soil, they did it. After which lied to Congress when requested concerning the incident in a Senate listening to.

The willingness to censor was not the one troubling factor I witnessed. I watched as executives determined to supply the Chinese language Communist Occasion with entry to Meta consumer information — together with that of People.

Meta doesn’t dispute these information. They can not. I’ve the paperwork. As just lately as this Monday they claimed they don’t function companies in China. One other lie.

In reality, they started providing services in China as early as 2014. That hasn’t stopped. Their very own SEC filings from final 12 months present that China is now Meta’s second largest market. In the meantime, Meta’s AI mannequin — Llama — has contributed considerably to Chinese language advances in AI applied sciences like DeepSeek.

Fb’s secret mission to get into China was known as “Mission Aldrin” and was restricted to need-to-know workers. There was no bridge too far. Meta constructed a bodily pipeline connecting the USA and China. Meta executives ignored warnings that this would offer backdoor entry to the Chinese language Communist Occasion, permitting them to intercept the private information and personal messages of Americans. The one motive China doesn’t at the moment have entry to US consumer information by this pipeline is as a result of Congress stepped in.

Meta began briefing the Chinese language Communist Occasion as early as 2015. These briefings targeted on essential rising applied sciences, together with synthetic intelligence. The specific purpose being to assist China outcompete American firms. There is a straight line you may draw from these briefings to the current revelations that China is growing AI fashions for army use, counting on Meta’s Llama mannequin. Meta’s inner paperwork describe their gross sales pitch for why China ought to permit them available in the market by quote “assist[ing] China improve international affect and promote the China Dream.”

The reality about what has gone on in China issues. I filed a shareholder decision asking Meta’s Board to research its exercise in China. And I filed whistleblower complaints with the SEC and the DOJ.

The measure of how essential these truths are is immediately proportional to the ferocity of Meta’s efforts to censor and intimidate me. I relied on their dedication given in 2018 that they’d waive their rights to pursue pressured arbitration. Regardless of that public dedication, they introduced a case towards me for tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. Now they’ve a authorized gag order that silences me at the same time as Meta and their proxies unfold lies about me. This order is so expansive that it prohibits me from talking with Members of Congress. This gag order was sought by an organization whose CEO claims to be a champion of free speech.

The American folks need to know the reality. Meta has been prepared to compromise its values, sacrifice the safety of its customers, and undermine American pursuits to construct its China enterprise. It has been occurring for years, lined up by lies, and continues to today. I’m right here at appreciable private danger as a result of you will have the ability and the authority to carry them accountable.

Thanks to your time and a focus to this essential matter.