Facebook

In what it hoped would be a windfall worth billions of dollars of revenue a year, Facebook appeared ready to build a CCP-controlled version of itself to serve the Chinese market. The evidence for the allegation came from a 78-page whistleblower complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Meta again in soup as whistleblower exposes China censorship plan – Interesting Engineering
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Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms is facing fresh scrutiny after a whistleblower accused the company of using extreme measures to censor content and quash political dissent in a bid to gain access to the Chinese market.

In a 78-page whistleblower complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April, Sarah Wynn Williams —Meta’s former global policy director for China  — alleged that the company was willing to allow the ruling party to oversee all social media content and store data locally to win the approval of the Chinese Communist Party.

Meta, then known as Facebook, devised a censorship system for China in 2015, which included a plan to appoint a “chief editor” authorized to remove content from the social media site and could even shut down the site during periods of “social unrest,” the complaint reviewed by The Washington Post said.

The complaint also alleged that Zuckerberg agreed to target the account of a prominent Chinese dissident living in the United States after receiving pressure from a senior Chinese official—a move the company saw as key to entering the Chinese market.

Meta built content censorship system to break into China, report says– mashable.com
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Mark Zuckerberg tried to get Facebook into China, where it is blocked, for well over a decade. According to a whistleblower report, Zuckerberg and Meta considered some fairly unsavory tactics to make it happen, including a censorship system and sharing user data.

The whistleblower in this case is Sarah Wynn-Williams, who filed a 78-page complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The report, obtained exclusively by The Washington Post, alleges Facebook considered giving China’s ruling party the ability to censor content and squelch dissent. Also included in the report was Meta’s willingness to share user data with China.

The complaint from Wynn-Williams reportedly alleged that Facebook, in 2015, created a censorship tool for China that would allow it to remove content or shut down the site during “social unrest.” The complaint from Wynn-Williams, who was fired in 2017 from her job working on a team that worked on China policy, reportedly contains internal Meta documents.

The complaint also alleges that Facebook faced pressure to store Chinese users’ data in China, which could’ve made it easier for the government to access the information. Facebook also allegedly considered weakening privacy protections for Hong Kong users in an effort to appease China.

Mark Zuckerberg Offered China Full Censorship Control And User Data Access, Says Meta Whistleblower: ‘Working Hand In Glove With The Chinese Communist Party’ – Benzinga
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A former Meta Platforms, Inc.  executive has accused the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg of going to extraordinary lengths—including enabling censorship and offering data access—to gain a foothold in China.

What Happened: In a whistleblower complaint filed with the SEC in April, Sarah Wynn-Williams, Meta’s former global policy director for China, made these allegations.

She stated that the company, formerly Facebook, developed a China-specific censorship system in 2015 and proposed installing a “chief editor” to manage and potentially shut down content during periods of social unrest.

The 78-page whistleblower complaint, reviewed by The Washington Post, claims Meta was prepared to give the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) oversight of all Facebook content in China and store user data locally—making it more accessible to government surveillance.