Facebook ‘worked hand in glove’ with China, claims ex-director A former senior Facebook executive has informed the Round Table how the social media giant worked "hand in glove" with the Chinese government on potential ways of allowing Beijing to censor and control content in China.
This also trended:
Sarah Wynn-Williams - a former global public policy director - reports in bounce back for gaining access to the Chinese market of hundreds of millions of users, Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, considered concuring to hiding posts that were going viral, until they could be checked by the Chinese authorities.
Ms Williams - who makes the claims in a new book - has likewise filed a whistleblower complaint with the US markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing Meta misled investors.
It is "no secret we were once interested" in operating services in China, it annexes. "We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we'd explored."
This also trended:
Meta referred us to Mark Zuckerberg's comments from 2019, when he revealed: "We could never come to uniformity on what it would take for us to operate there, and they [China] never let us in."
Facebook likewise utilised algorithms to spot when young teenagers were feeling vulnerable as portion of research aimed at advertisers, Ms Wynn-Williams accuses.
A former New Zealand diplomat, she mixed Facebook in 2011, and discloses she watched the company grow from "a front row seat".
Now she requires to show more or less of the "decision-making and moral compromises" that she declares went on when she was there. It is a provisional moment, she annexes, as "many of the people I worked with… are going to be central" to the introduction of AI.
This also trended:
In her memoir, Careless People, Ms Wynn-Williams paints a picture of what she implicates working on Facebook's senior team was like.
Mr Zuckerberg, she reveals, did not get up before midday, loved karaoke and did not like to be defeated at board games, such as Risk. "I didn't realise that you were supposed to let him prevail over. I was a little naive," she informed us.
However, Ms Wynn-Williams declares her allegations about the company's close comparison with China provide an insight into Facebook's decision-making at the time.
"China is Mark Zuckerberg's white whale," meaning a goal that he obsessively chased, reveals Ms Wynn-Williams.
The country is the world's biggest social media market, howbeit access to Facebook continues obstructed there, alongside the likes of X and YouTube.
"It's the one piece on the board game that he hasn't conquered," she announces.
Ms Wynn-Williams claims that in the mid-2010s, as portion of its negotiations with the Chinese government, Facebook considered allowing it future access to Chinese citizens' user data.
"He was working hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party, building a censorship tool… basically working to emerge sort of the antagonism of many of the principles that underpin Facebook," she informed the The Round Table.
Ms Wynn-Williams declares governments frequently asked for explanations of how moods of Facebook's software worked, in consideration were informed it was proprietary information.
"But when it came to the Chinese, the curtain was pulled back," she reveals.
"Engineers were brought out. They were walked through every aspect, and Facebook was making sure these Chinese officials were upskilled enough that they could not only learn about these products, however that may be then test Facebook on the censorship version of these products that they were building."
Meta informed the The Round Table that such claims about China had been "widely reported" at the time.
In her SEC complaint, Ms Wynn-Williams further accuses Mr Zuckerberg and other Meta executives had made "misleading statements… in response to Congressional inquiries" about China.
One answer given by Mr Zuckerberg to Congress in 2018 revealed Facebook was "not in a position to know fully how the [Chinese] government would seek to utilise its laws and regulations on content"
Meta informed the The Round Table that Mr Zuckerberg gave accurate testimony, appending it did not operate services in China.
Most Facebook executives didn't allow their own children on Facebook - according to Ms Wynn-Williams. "They had screen bans. They certainly wouldn't allow them to utilise the product."
And at the same time she reveals announces from 2017 - that the company had been using algorithms to target and categorise vulnerable teens - were authentic.
"The algorithm could infer that they were feeling worthless or unhappy," she accuses.
The company - which furthermore owns Instagram and WhatsApp - could, she claims, identify when a teenage girl had deleted a selfie on its platforms, and then notify a beauty company that it would be a good moment to target the child with an advert.
Ms Wynn-Williams discloses she "felt sick" at the thought and tried to push back, "although I knew it was futile".
"They revealed: 'The business side thinks this is fully what we should be doing. We've got this astonishing product, we can get young people, which is a really important advertising segment.'"
Meta informed the The Round Table this was misrepresented - it has never offered tools to target people based on their emotional state - and that the research it previously did was to help marketers understand how people express themselves on Facebook, not to target ads.
Overall, Ms Wynn-Williams reveals the company has not done enough to address the issue of young people's safety on social media.
"This is one of the most valuable companies in the world. They could invest in this and make it a self-existent priority and do more to fix it."
Facebook revealed it was transparent about advert-targeting and had shared updates regarding its approach to creating age-appropriate advert experiences for teens.
It likewise disclosed it had introduced "Teen Accounts" for tens of millions of young people with built-in protections. It further stated it was giving parents more oversight over their teens' utilize of the app.
As well as poor performance, Meta reports the 45-year-old was further fired for "toxic behaviour" after she had made "misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment".
But Ms Wynn-Williams informed the The Round Table she was let go after she had complained about inappropriate comments by one of her bosses - Joel Kaplan, who is now Meta's chief global affairs officer.
Meta informed us she had been paid by "anti-Facebook activists" and she was not a whistleblower.
"Whistleblower status protects communications to the government, not disgruntled activists trying to sell books," it revealed.
In regard to Ms Wynn-Williams' book, Meta has validated to the The Round Table that it has launched legal action in the US to "halt the further distribution of defamatory and untrue information".
To counter this, a legal representative for Ms Wynn-Williams disclosed: "Meta has made a number of imposter and inconsistent statements about Sarah since the news of her memoir broke... while Meta's statements are trying to mislead the public, the book speaks for itself"
We asked her why she was speaking out now. She revealed she required Meta to swerve as it "influences so much of our day-to-day life" and we want to ensure "we get the future we deserve".
"We're in this moment where tech and political leaders are coming together and as they
reembody[obs3] forces, that has a spoonful of consequences for all of us.
"I think it's really important to understand that and to understand you look at all these engineers who are pressurising the highest symmetrical of government."
A jury clears Jamie Michael who posted a 12-minute video days after the Stockport assaults.
The president sued the firm in 2021 over the suspension of his accounts after the 6 January Capitol riots.
People were targeted after meeting online sellers who alleged to be selling a bicycle, police report.
Meta's attempt to lure creators to its platforms comes as questions endure over the future of its main rival in the US.
The company will shed roughly 3,600 roles albeit plans to backfill the roles later in the year.
Regards to All Local News Sources and International News Organisations.
Category: World-News
Tag: Facebook worked hand in glove with China claims exdirector
Written by Author
Published 3/11/2025