A Meta whistleblower could prove that Mark Zuckerberg “lied to Congress” in regards to the social media giant’s ties to China when she testifies on Capitol Hill next week, Sen. Josh Hawley told The Post in an exclusive interview.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook global policy director who worked on China issues, is slated to go in front of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Hawley (R-Mo.) on Wednesday — despite Meta’s frantic attempts to muzzle her from promoting or publicly discussing her bombshell memoir, “Careless People.”
The memoir includes explosive allegations about Meta’s failed bid to realize favor with China — including constructing a “censorship system” in 2015 that will allow Beijing to dam certain words and “making efforts to cover Meta’s cooperation with the CCP from the US Congress,” in line with Wynn-Williams. Meta ultimately dropped its bid to enter China in 2019.
Hawley said Wynn-Williams’ tell-all reveals how Meta “worked actively, hand in glove, with the Chinese Communist Party” in a way that allowed Beijing to “go after dissidents” and put American data in danger.
“All of these things, Facebook has said for years they never did,” the Republican told The Post. “They’ve at all times said, ‘Oh no, no, we never censored. We never would. We now have these values.’ What I see here is that they have lied to the general public and lied to Congress.”
Hawley argued that Meta’s attempts to “silence” Wynn-Williams directly contradicted recent claims by Zuckerberg that Meta has learned its lesson about past censorship, akin to its decision to throttle The Post’s exclusive reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“It’s really incredible, for an organization that now says they’ve sworn off censorship,” Hawley said. “That is a rare thing to go to an American court and ask an American court to drag down a book published on this country. That has not been permitted by our First Amendment since we became a rustic.”
Wynn-Williams, who also filed an SEC whistleblower grievance, alleges Meta also agreed to limit an account in 2017 operated by Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese billionaire and dissident, and thought of caving in 2014 to a request to share the private data of Chinese users, including residents of Hong Kong, with the CCP.
Watchdogs just like the Tech Oversight Project have called on Congress to “drop the hammer” on Meta over the revelations, as The Post has reported.
Hawley, also a member of the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations, joined with Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and rating member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on a letter demanding that Zuckerberg provide documents about Meta’s efforts to realize entry into China.
The letter put Meta on notice a few formal probe that’s underway and said Wynn-Williams’ claims “are corroborated by internal records documenting these efforts reviewed by the Subcommittee.”
“We’ll actually need to know in the event that they lied to Congress, if any of their executives committed perjury, in the event that they have violated their oaths before the various committees that they’ve testified to,” Hawley said. “So we’re going to take a really hard take a look at that, after which we’ll go where the evidence leads us.”
In a ruling earlier this week, arbitrator Nicolas Gowen said Wynn-Williams shouldn’t communicate with lawmakers “outside of the context of an investigation” since the legislators couldn’t be stopped “from parroting to the general public any disparaging statements” that she had made.
In response, Wynn-Williams’ attorney said Meta was attempting to dam her from chatting with members of Congress about her experiences.
“There’s a transparent exception for congressional investigations and that’s what we’re doing,” Hawley said. “My committee has opened a proper investigation. She is going to testify pursuant to that investigation. And there’s no agreement, no arbitration clause that might possibly stop that.”
Meta has strenuously denied Wynn-Williams’ claims.
“We don’t operate our services in China today,” a Meta spokesperson told The Post. “It is not any secret we were once fascinated about doing in order a part of Facebook’s effort to attach the world. This was widely reported starting a decade ago. We ultimately opted to not undergo with the ideas we’d explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019.”
Hawley has clashed with Meta executives in public hearings on several occasions — including a high-profile spat in January 2024 when he demanded that Zuckerberg apologize to the families of victims of online abuse.
Wynn-Williams also detailed examples of what she called a “rotten company culture” reaching as high as Zuckerberg, his ex-No. 2 Sheryl Sandberg and current top policy executive Joel Kaplan.
The memoir alleged that Sandberg once spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and a young female assistant and later invited Wynn-Williams to “come to bed” during a protracted flight home from Europe, amongst other salacious claims.
A Meta whistleblower could prove that Mark Zuckerberg “lied to Congress” in regards to the social media giant’s ties to China when she testifies on Capitol Hill next week, Sen. Josh Hawley told The Post in an exclusive interview.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook global policy director who worked on China issues, is slated to go in front of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Hawley (R-Mo.) on Wednesday — despite Meta’s frantic attempts to muzzle her from promoting or publicly discussing her bombshell memoir, “Careless People.”
The memoir includes explosive allegations about Meta’s failed bid to realize favor with China — including constructing a “censorship system” in 2015 that will allow Beijing to dam certain words and “making efforts to cover Meta’s cooperation with the CCP from the US Congress,” in line with Wynn-Williams. Meta ultimately dropped its bid to enter China in 2019.
Hawley said Wynn-Williams’ tell-all reveals how Meta “worked actively, hand in glove, with the Chinese Communist Party” in a way that allowed Beijing to “go after dissidents” and put American data in danger.
“All of these things, Facebook has said for years they never did,” the Republican told The Post. “They’ve at all times said, ‘Oh no, no, we never censored. We never would. We now have these values.’ What I see here is that they have lied to the general public and lied to Congress.”
Hawley argued that Meta’s attempts to “silence” Wynn-Williams directly contradicted recent claims by Zuckerberg that Meta has learned its lesson about past censorship, akin to its decision to throttle The Post’s exclusive reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“It’s really incredible, for an organization that now says they’ve sworn off censorship,” Hawley said. “That is a rare thing to go to an American court and ask an American court to drag down a book published on this country. That has not been permitted by our First Amendment since we became a rustic.”
Wynn-Williams, who also filed an SEC whistleblower grievance, alleges Meta also agreed to limit an account in 2017 operated by Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese billionaire and dissident, and thought of caving in 2014 to a request to share the private data of Chinese users, including residents of Hong Kong, with the CCP.
Watchdogs just like the Tech Oversight Project have called on Congress to “drop the hammer” on Meta over the revelations, as The Post has reported.
Hawley, also a member of the Senate Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations, joined with Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and rating member Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on a letter demanding that Zuckerberg provide documents about Meta’s efforts to realize entry into China.
The letter put Meta on notice a few formal probe that’s underway and said Wynn-Williams’ claims “are corroborated by internal records documenting these efforts reviewed by the Subcommittee.”
“We’ll actually need to know in the event that they lied to Congress, if any of their executives committed perjury, in the event that they have violated their oaths before the various committees that they’ve testified to,” Hawley said. “So we’re going to take a really hard take a look at that, after which we’ll go where the evidence leads us.”
In a ruling earlier this week, arbitrator Nicolas Gowen said Wynn-Williams shouldn’t communicate with lawmakers “outside of the context of an investigation” since the legislators couldn’t be stopped “from parroting to the general public any disparaging statements” that she had made.
In response, Wynn-Williams’ attorney said Meta was attempting to dam her from chatting with members of Congress about her experiences.
“There’s a transparent exception for congressional investigations and that’s what we’re doing,” Hawley said. “My committee has opened a proper investigation. She is going to testify pursuant to that investigation. And there’s no agreement, no arbitration clause that might possibly stop that.”
Meta has strenuously denied Wynn-Williams’ claims.
“We don’t operate our services in China today,” a Meta spokesperson told The Post. “It is not any secret we were once fascinated about doing in order a part of Facebook’s effort to attach the world. This was widely reported starting a decade ago. We ultimately opted to not undergo with the ideas we’d explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019.”
Hawley has clashed with Meta executives in public hearings on several occasions — including a high-profile spat in January 2024 when he demanded that Zuckerberg apologize to the families of victims of online abuse.
Wynn-Williams also detailed examples of what she called a “rotten company culture” reaching as high as Zuckerberg, his ex-No. 2 Sheryl Sandberg and current top policy executive Joel Kaplan.
The memoir alleged that Sandberg once spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and a young female assistant and later invited Wynn-Williams to “come to bed” during a protracted flight home from Europe, amongst other salacious claims.
