A former Facebook government who lately revealed an explosive tell-all memoir about her time on the firm is about to testify earlier than Congress Wednesday in regards to the threat she claims Meta poses to US nationwide safety.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former director of world public coverage, despatched Meta’s sizable public relations and authorized equipment into overdrive in March when her ebook debuted, alleging that she had been terminated from the corporate after accusing its now chief world affairs officer Joel Kaplan of sexual harassment. Among different issues, the ebook additionally charged the corporate with cozying as much as China’s censorship regime in hopes of launching its companies there—a subject that Wynn-Williams plans to concentrate on in her testimony, in line with her ready remarks, which had been first reported on by NBC News.
Meta beforehand advised Vanity Fair that the ebook included a “mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives.” A slew of former workers have additionally since spoken out, testifying to Kaplan’s character and accusing Wynn-Williams of misrepresenting occasions.
Meta went as far as to hunt an emergency listening to with an arbitrator to implement a non-disparagement settlement Wynn-Williams signed in change for severance when she was fired in 2017. The arbitrator barred Wynn-Williams from selling the ebook or “amplifying or repeating” any “disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments.”
But the Streisand Effect is a heckuva factor, and Careless People not solely soared to the highest of Amazon’s bestseller record, but it surely additionally caught the eye of Big Tech hawks like Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that Wynn-Williams will transient Wednesday.
In her opening remarks, Wynn-Williams plans to accuse Meta of working “‘hand in glove’ with the Chinese Communist Party to construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics.” She additionally plans to accuse Meta of mendacity about its operations in China, together with about its open-source AI mannequin Llama.
Reuters reported final yr that Meta’s Llama has been utilized by researchers linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army, a use case Meta’s director of public coverage advised Reuters was “unauthorized and contrary to our acceptable use policy.” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged on X that “the alleged role of a single and outdated version of an American open-source model is irrelevant when we know China is already investing over [$1 trillion] to surpass the US technologically.”
In her remarks, Wynn-Williams notes that advertisers in China stay a big income stream for Meta. Indeed, the corporate introduced in $18 billion from Chinese advertisers final yr, in line with its SEC stories. However, Meta argues that advert income is distinct from working its platforms for customers to hitch in China. “Sarah Wynn-Williams’ testimony is divorced from reality and riddled with false claims,” Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels advised Vanity Fair. “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.”
Wynn-Williams plans to acknowledge the arbitrator’s order that she chorus from badmouthing Meta. But, in her remarks, she writes that she is talking to Congress “at considerable personal risk because you have the power and the authority to hold them accountable.”
Meta has mentioned the arbitrator’s order doesn’t prohibit Wynn-Williams’ testimony. “We have no intention to interfere with Wynn-Williams’ legal rights,” Daniels mentioned.ecurity.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former director of world public coverage, despatched Meta’s sizable public relations and authorized equipment into overdrive in March when her ebook debuted, alleging that she had been terminated from the corporate after accusing its now chief world affairs officer Joel Kaplan of sexual harassment. Among different issues, the ebook additionally charged the corporate with cozying as much as China’s censorship regime in hopes of launching its companies there — a subject that Wynn-Williams plans to concentrate on in her testimony, in line with her ready remarks, which had been first reported by NBC News.