At a time when bipartisan agreement is scarce in Washington, D.C., senators from both parties seemed to unite Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, which centered on bombshell allegations from a Meta whistleblower. All seemed to agree that Meta poses a threat to free and civil discourse, and that the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is not to be trusted.

The hearing was a public opportunity for Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams to air allegations made in her recent book, “Careless People,” which details her time working alongside Meta bigwigs like Zuckerberg, Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan and former Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. Meta fought hard in court to prevent Wynn-Williams from promoting her book and, according to Wynn-Williams, even sought to prevent her from speaking with members of Congress.

Among the more eye-popping allegations in her testimony:

• That Meta, as part of its pitch to expand Facebook into China, developed censorship technology that could be used by its government.
• That Meta censored a Chinese dissident at Chinese officials’ behest.
• That Meta has deceived the U.S. Congress about its ongoing operations in China.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a statement that Wynn-Williams’ testimony is “divorced from reality” and that “while Mark Zuckerberg himself was public about our interest in offering our services in China and details were widely reported beginning over a decade ago, the fact is this: We do not operate our services in China today.” 

Here are some other key takeaways from Wednesday’s hearing.

Mistrust of Zuckerberg

Mistrust of Zuckerberg was remarkably bipartisan. These quotes from Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., exemplify what I mean. 

Hawley:

Sarah Wynn-Williams knows the truth about Facebook — that’s what they fear. She knows that while Mark Zuckerberg now claims to be a champion of the United States and claims to be a free speech warrior, he in fact worked hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party for years. He in fact made censorship his business model. He in fact developed censorship tools for the Chinese Communist Party to use against its own people. He in fact made Americans’ own user data available, was willing to make it available, to Beijing.

Blumenthal didn’t sound impressed with Zuckerberg’s public image as a “free speech champion” either, and he suggested the CEO’s recent pivot to MAGA might be an effort to defuse a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Meta over alleged antitrust infractions.

Blumenthal said at the hearing:

It is disgusting and the height of hypocrisy for a supposed free speech champion, Mark Zuckerberg, and Meta to use a campaign of threats and intimidation to try to silence you. But it is part of a pattern. Meta is trying to buy and even bribe and pander its way out of any accountability. It has donated a million dollars to Trump’s inaugural fund. It started ripping up its policies on hate speech and letting fraud and abuse run rampant on its platforms. And, appallingly, according to The Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg has recently visited the White House, three times, to get the president to order the Federal Trade Commission to drop its antitrust case. Meta will stop at nothing to dispel and disguise and deceive.

There was no love lost, on either side of the aisle, for Zuck.

Recommended

Latest

Meta whistleblowers sound the alarm on Zuckerberg’s pet project

Ja’han Jones

Latest

Meta and Mark Zuckerberg tap MAGA influencer as AI ‘bias’ adviser

Ja’han Jones

Watch Wynn-Williams’ exchange with Hawley here:

Censorship of Bannon ally Guo Wengui

Wynn-Williams testified that Meta censored a Chinese dissident at the request of Chinese officials, and that the dissident was Guo Wengui, a federally convicted fraudster and MAGA-friendly ally of far-right activist Steve Bannon. Wynn-Williams said Facebook’s claim that a 2017 suspension of Guo’s account stemmed from a temporary glitch was a lie, and that the decision to temporarily kick him off the platform actually came as a result of pressure from a Chinese official.

Stone, the Meta spokesperson, said in a statement that Guo “faced account restrictions because he shared personally identifiable information such as passport numbers, social security numbers and addresses,” The Washington Post reported.

Pressure on Meta from all sides

There’s more scrutiny of Meta on the horizon. Wynn-Williams told the panel that Meta’s claim that it is not operating in China is a lie; she claimed Meta showed a willingness to compromise Americans’ data in exchange for a foothold in China; and she’s filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department to investigate. She also alleged that Meta has had a multibillion-dollar business relationship with China for more than a decade and claimed Facebook’s artificial intelligence models were used to build DeepSeek, a powerful Chinese AI company.

Blumenthal and Hawley have opened a joint probe into Meta’s alleged operations in China.

All of this is happening as Meta prepares for the FTC case that may force it to spin off some of its brands, like WhatsApp and Instagram, to avoid running afoul of anti-monopoly rules.