A US Senate investigative subcommittee opened a review on Tuesday into efforts by Facebook parent Meta Platforms to gain access to the Chinese market and is seeking documents from the company.
Senator Ron Johnson, who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, joined by Senator Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat, and Senator Josh Hawley, asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about allegations that it worked to build censorship tools for the Chinese Communist Party as part of its attempt to gain entry to the Chinese market, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The senators want Meta to disclose extensive records including all company communications or records of meetings with Chinese government officials since 2014. They want Meta to do this by April 21.
The senators cited reports in the recently published book “Careless People,” by former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams, that in 2014 the company allegedly developed a “three-year plan” to gain access to the Chinese market. The initiative was code-named “Project Aldrin,” the book said.
The senators’ letter said the “accounts are corroborated by internal records documenting these efforts reviewed by the Subcommittee.”
A Meta spokesperson rejected the claims.
“This is all pushed by an employee terminated eight years ago for poor performance. We do not operate our services in China today. It is no secret we were once interested in doing so as part of Facebook’s effort to connect the world,” the company said. “We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we’d explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019.”
Blumenthal said the issue raises serious concerns.
“Chilling whistleblower documents reviewed by the Subcommittee paint a damning portrait of a company that would censor, conceal, and deceive, to obtain access to the Chinese market,” he said.
The letter seeks records related to Facebook/Meta’s subsidiaries and partners in China and to its launch of apps in China, including Colorful Balloons, Flash, Boomerang, Layout, Hyperlapse and MSQRD, and all communications referring or relating to “Project Aldrin.”
The letter also seeks records since 2014 “relating to any effort to censor or otherwise remove content at the government’s request” and about an abandoned effort to connect an undersea telecommunications cable between California and Hong Kong.
Wynn-Williams claims that Meta is blocking her from speaking to lawmakers about the China allegations and other experiences at the company detailed in her book. Meta has said the book contains “out-of-date” and “false” accusations.
On the day of the book’s publication, Meta filed an arbitration demand stating that the claims violate a voluntary non-disparagement agreement that Wynn-Williams signed upon leaving the company. A day later, the arbitrator temporarily ordered her not to make any “disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments” related to Meta and to stop promoting the book.
In a filing requesting to lift that order last month, lawyers for Wynn-Williams said it was blocking her from speaking with lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere who had asked to talk with her about “issues of public concern raised in her memoir.” In response, a Meta spokesperson said the company has no intention to interfere with her legal rights.
But on Wednesday, a lawyer for Wynn-Williams released a statement saying the order stopping the former executive from speaking about the company had been upheld.
“Congress has made it clear they expect to be able to communicate with Ms. Wynn-Williams, and my client wishes to do so,” lawyer Ravi Naik said in a statement. “Meta has however silenced Ms Wynn-Williams through an arbitration process, which means that she is prohibited from communicating with Congress. Ms Wynn-Williams believes that people deserve to know the truth.”
CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.
