Sarah Wynn-Williams’ explosive claims could reshape the scrutiny around Meta’s past dealings with Beijing as Sen. Josh Hawley warns of possible perjury.
A former Meta executive turned whistleblower is set to testify before Congress next week, raising the stakes for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and top executives over their alleged attempts to court the Chinese Communist Party — and possibly mislead lawmakers about it.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook global policy director who handled China-related issues, will appear before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Wednesday. The hearing, led by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), comes amid growing controversy over her bombshell memoir, Careless People, which details Meta’s shadowy efforts to cooperate with Chinese authorities and hide those efforts from the U.S. Congress.
In an exclusive interview with The New York Post, Hawley said Wynn-Williams’ testimony could prove that Zuckerberg and others “lied to Congress.”
“All of this stuff, Facebook has said for years they never did,” Hawley said. “They’ve always claimed, ‘Oh no, we never censored. We never would.’ What I see here is that they have lied to the public and lied to Congress.”
Among the most damning allegations in Wynn-Williams’ memoir is Meta’s alleged development of a “censorship system” in 2015 to allow Beijing to block politically sensitive content. She also claims Meta considered sharing the personal data of Chinese users — including Hong Kong residents — with the CCP in 2014, and that it agreed to restrict a dissident account in 2017 operated by Guo Wengui, a self-exiled Chinese billionaire.
Meta has denied the allegations, with a spokesperson stating: “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. We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we’d explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019.”
But Wynn-Williams alleges the company not only explored those ideas, but worked “hand in glove” with Chinese officials to try to gain a foothold in the country. Internal records reviewed by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations reportedly back up many of her claims.
Wynn-Williams has also filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Meta has since tried to prevent her from promoting or discussing her book publicly. An arbitrator ruled she should not communicate with lawmakers “outside the context of an investigation,” fearing her remarks could be echoed “disparagingly” by members of Congress.
Hawley, however, is pushing back against any attempt to silence her.
“There is a clear exception for congressional investigations and that’s what we’re doing,” he said. “She will testify pursuant to that investigation. And there’s no agreement, no arbitration clause that could possibly stop that.”
Hawley, along with Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), has demanded Meta provide internal documents relating to its past efforts to operate in China. “We’ll certainly want to know if they lied to Congress,” Hawley said. “If any of their executives committed perjury… we’ll go where the evidence leads us.”
Beyond the geopolitical implications, Wynn-Williams’ memoir also paints a disturbing picture of Meta’s internal culture, accusing top executives — including Zuckerberg, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, and policy chief Joel Kaplan — of enabling a “rotten company culture.”
One particularly lurid claim alleges Sandberg once spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and a young assistant, and later made a suggestive invitation to Wynn-Williams on a transatlantic flight.
The Tech Oversight Project has called on Congress to “drop the hammer” on Meta, urging lawmakers to take serious action if the claims are substantiated.
This is not the first time Hawley has clashed with Meta. He publicly confronted Zuckerberg in January 2024, demanding he apologize to families affected by online abuse on Meta’s platforms. Now, with Wynn-Williams set to testify, Meta faces one of its most serious reckonings yet.
As the tech giant tries to manage the fallout, the broader question remains: Did Meta put profit and expansion ahead of democratic values — and are its leaders being truthful about it today?
Sarah Wynn-Williams will testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on April 3, 2025. The investigation is ongoing.
