Facebook Whistleblower Makes Shock Claim About Mark Zuckerberg During Senate Testimony
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In order to operate in China, the Communist Party requires American companies to register with authorities and host servers inside the country. And I think it's pretty well known that Chinese law requires that security services are allowed access to any data hosted within the country. Did any of Facebook's security team or its engineers raise concerns to management about

about Americans' private information being exposed to Chinese spying? Yes, Senator, they did. And how did they do that? They documented their concern in a number of ways. They noted that this would happen, that the Chinese would get access to the data. And they also noted their concern in other discussions and other documentation saying, you know,

My red line as a security engineer is to not be comfortable with this, but my red line is not Mark Zuckerberg's red line. Maybe you can explain what you mean by that. The engineer was saying that they were not comfortable with the way the China project was structured that would allow the Chinese Communist Party to potentially access American citizens' data and...

But in saying that, they noted that, you know, that's a red line for me as a security engineer. That's not Mark Zuckerberg's red line. Did you sense he had any red line? I did not. If he did, you don't know what it was? I don't. If you have more information related to these spying risks, would you be willing to share it with the committee? I would, Senator. Mark Zuckerberg was knowledgeable about the planning and

Do you know whether he was knowledgeable about the risks as well? My understanding is that the risk is the hardest part of the plan. So it's unthinkable that he was not aware of the risk. Nothing happened here without his approval and knowledge.

This was a project unlike any other project I worked on during my time at Meta in that it was so centrally led by Mark Zuckerberg and he was so personally invested in this project. He learnt Mandarin. He travelled to China more than any other country. He had weekly Mandarin sessions with employees. This was...

It's hard to overstate how different this project was to any other project I experienced in my many years at the company. So there would be no credibility to his denying that he knew about the risks, he knew about the concerns raised by his engineers and his China team, and he was intimately involved in not only the planning and the engineering, but also in taking those risks. Senator, he was travelling to Beijing.

In the documents submitted to the subcommittee, Facebook appears to have been willing to provide the data of users in Hong Kong to the Chinese government at a time when pro-democracy protesters were opposing Beijing's crackdown. Is that impression correct? And how did Facebook treat Taiwan or Hong Kong? So that impression is correct.

One of the more surprising things is that as part of the censorship tool that was developed, there were virality counters. So anytime a piece of content got over 10,000 views, that would automatically trigger it being reviewed by what they called the chief editor. And what was...

particularly surprising is that the virality counters were not just installed but activated in Hong Kong and also in Taiwan. Let me ask you, I raised in my remarks and I know that a number of other colleagues did as well the record of misrepresentation and deceit.

One of our former colleagues, Senator Leahy, asked Mark Zuckerberg in 2018 whether Facebook would comply with Chinese censorship and surveillance demand. He even asked if Facebook had built censorship tools to enter the Chinese market. And Zuckerberg responded, I'm quoting,

Because Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009, we are not in a position to know exactly how the government would seek to apply its laws and regulations on content were we permitted to offer our service to Chinese users. Ms. Williams, was that accurate?

That is not accurate. You know, hundreds of decisions had been made. And by 2018, they'd been in dialogue directly with the Chinese Communist Party for four years. The fact is, by 2018, Facebook built, it even turned on censorship and surveillance tools that it developed. It developed for Chinese security officials, correct? Correct.

It developed and those Chinese Communist Party officials tested the censorship tool and would give feedback and say, this needs to change or we need this or we need confidence that you can capture images and filter images we don't want seen. You know, we talk a lot about 1984. Facebook developed a virility counter tool.

that directed any posts of over 10,000 views to be reviewed by an Orwellian named quote-unquote chief editor. Is that correct? That's correct. And was the chief editor's geographic reach limited to mainland China or did they plan to cover other locations? They planned to cover Hong Kong and Taiwan is my understanding. So their surveillance operation was directed at Taiwan?

That's my understanding, Senator. And Hong Kong? That's my understanding. Was the editor-in-chief's or the chief editor's power limited to reviewing viral posts? Oh, no, it was extensive power. The chief editor would be able to turn off the entire service in specific regions, for example, Xinjiang, or would also be able to

turn off or manage the service on significant anniversaries like the anniversary of Tiananmen Square.

Now, save up to

50% site-wide, plus a free professional measure. Blinds.com. Rules and restrictions may apply. So the chief editor, a creation of Facebook, was an Orwellian censor that applied to locations outside mainland China, to Taiwan and Hong Kong, to people not within the legal jurisdiction of China,

but also obviously the Chinese themselves, and it was designed and implemented by Mehta and Mark Zuckerberg. Correct, Senator. Even though its very existence was denied before this committee in 2018. That's correct, Senator. Silicon Valley companies are famous, as you know, for their moonshot programs such as Google X.

In recent years, Mark Zuckerberg spent billions of dollars on the metaverse and AI. He even named or renamed the company as part of a pivot to focus on that technology. Did Facebook engage in any moonshot efforts in China? And were these efforts walled off or protected from the Communist Party? They did, Senator, and I'd be happy to follow up with the committee on this point. You'd prefer to follow up privately? Yeah.

Just one last question. I'm interested in how much of a national champion Meta actually is for the United States. Did Facebook share information about its facial recognition, artificial intelligence models and other sensitive technologies to Chinese security officials? In other words, did it share that significant technology regarding facial recognition and other surveillance methods?

Look, the greatest trick Mark Zuckerberg ever pulled was wrapping the American flag around himself and calling himself a patriot and saying he didn't offer services in China while he spent the last decade building an $18 billion business there. And he wrapped the flag around himself even as he disclosed sensitive technologies that enabled the Chinese to gain the upper hand on surveilling its citizens, but also...

the upper hand in engaging with us. And he continues to wrap the flag around himself as we move into the next era of artificial intelligence. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator. Senator Blackburn.

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