Facebook’s ‘Censorship System’ for China Under Scrutiny, Exposed by Whistleblower Documents

• Sarah Wynn-Williams, former Facebook global policy director, has detailed the lengths Meta went to capture China’s social media market.
• The whistleblower has alleged Meta helped China expand its artificial intelligence capabilities.
• Meta has long spoken out against China’s internet measures while promoting the importance of free speech.
• The U.S. Senate is now investigating the tech giant’s efforts to enter the Chinese market.

A former Facebook global policy director Sarah Wynn-Williams has disclosed Meta’s alleged attempts to capture China’s social media market—and is now claiming the company aided China in growing its AI capabilities.

The 78-page complaint outlines plans to create a censorship tool for the country to detect content that is applicable to Chinese law, the creation of a “China team,” and allowing China’s government to access user data.

Despite the social media firm publicly decrying free speech and criticizing China’s closed internet, a U.S. Senate committee is now investigating the claims.

Whistleblower Claims Meta Aided China in AI Race

In March, Sarah Wynn-Williams, Meta’s former Chinese policy worker, claimed that Meta, then Facebook, went to great lengths to enter the Chinese market.

Wynn-Williams is set to testify before Congress, alleging the social media giant helped China advance in the AI race.

In prepared remarks first reported by NBC , Williams is expected to tell the U.S. government on Wednesday, April 9 that Meta started briefing the Chinese Communist Party as early as 2015.

“These briefings focused on critical emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. The explicit goal being to help China outcompete American companies,” she will say.

Williams said there is a “straight line” to draw from the briefings to China’s current use of Meta’s AI tools to expand its military capabilities, although she provides no evidence for this.

A Meta spokesperson said the claims were “divorced from reality and riddled with false claims.”

U.S. Senate Opens Investigation

On Tuesday, April 1, the U.S. government opened a review of Meta’s efforts to enter the Chinese market and sought documents from the tech giant.

“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,” Senator Richard Blumenthal said.

The committee questioned CEO Mark Zuckerberg over allegations it helped build censorship tools for the Chinese government, according to a letter viewed by Reuters.

Meta has been asked to disclose records relating to all company communications with government officials since 2014 by April 21.

A Meta spokesperson responded to the investigation, claiming this was 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 spokesperson said.

“We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we’d explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019,” the spokesperson added.

Facebook’s Attempts To Work Closely With China

Williams’ original complaint in March, reported by The Washington Post , alleged that Zuckerberg made a “China team” in 2014 to exclusively develop versions of its services for China. Facebook named this project “Project Aldrin.”

In 2014, Facebook drafted a letter to the country’s then-internet czar, Lu Wei, offering “to work more closely with all your embassies or consulates around the world.”

In August, some employees explored whether the company should offer Hong Kong users the same privacy protections as those in the U.S. and Europe.

The documents showed that Facebook was willing to weaken Hong Kong users’ rights.

“In exchange for the ability to establish operations in China, FB will agree to grant the Chinese government access to Chinese users’ data— including Hongkongese users’ data,” an email from one policy employee read.

Facebook’s Censorship System for China

One proposal sent to Lu outlined a censorship system designed to help Hony Capital, a Chinese private equity firm, review whether content posted by users in China or visitors to the country complied with applicable laws.

After Lu was removed from the government and sentenced to 14 years in prison for bribery , Facebook continued its attempts to infiltrate the country.

The complaint showed that Meta secretly launched several social applications in 2017 under the name of a China-based company. One of its employees created the apps, the complaint said.

Andy Stone, a Meta spokesperson, told The Washington Post that it was “no secret” that Meta had pursued the Chinese market.

“This was widely reported beginning a decade ago,” he told the publication. “We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we’d explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019.”

On Tuesday, March 4, Meta confirmed that its Facebook and Instagram facial recognition tech will be launched in the U.K. and the EU.

Critics within the U.K. and U.S. have repeatedly raised concerns about the inclusion of Chinese-style surveillance in the West.

Meta, A Free Speech Advocate?

Meta is a key funder of American Edge, a not-for-profit that criticizes TikTok and China while promoting the importance of a free internet.

In recent months, Meta has spoken out alongside U.S. President Donald Trump against China and its threat to artificial intelligence.

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new chief global affairs officer, wrote on Threads that the company would “keep the U.S. at the cutting edge of AI and make sure the global AI standard is based on our shared values, not China’s.”

CEO Zuckerberg also said in January that “China has censored our apps from even working in the country,” while claiming to work with the President to push back on governments from censoring.

“One of the top priorities for President Trump is the West winning this critical [AI] race, and yet for many years Meta has been working hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party, briefing them on the latest technological developments and lying about it,” Wynn-Williams told The Washington Post.

Meta Gains From TikTok Ban

In a 2025 meeting, reported by The Washington Post, Zuckerberg told employees that the firm would be helped if China-based TikTok became banned in the U.S.

“They are one of our main competitors,” said Zuckerberg. “That’s a card we get to turn to.”

In 2024, TikTok raised $12.34 billion in U.S. ad revenue, and if a permanent ban were implemented, between $6.17 billion and $8.64 billion could be redirected.