Facebook ‘worked hand in glove’ with China, claims ex-director

A former Facebook executive has revealed to the BBC that the social media giant had "close collaboration" with the Chinese government to explore ways to allow Beijing to censor and control content within China.

Sarah Frier, former global public policy director, said that in exchange for access to the Chinese market with hundreds of millions of users, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg considered agreeing to hide posts that spread quickly until Chinese authorities could review them.

Wen-Williams makes these allegations in a new book and has filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), claiming that Meta misled investors. The BBC has reviewed the complaint.

Meta, Facebook's parent company, said that Wen-Williams was fired in 2017 for "poor performance." The company added, "It's no secret that we were once interested in operating a service in China," but "we ultimately chose not to pursue those ideas."

Meta also referred to Mark Zuckerberg's comments in 2019, when he said, "We could never agree on what it would take for us to operate there, and they [China] never let us in."

Wen-Williams also claims that Facebook used algorithms to identify when young teenagers were feeling vulnerable, as part of research for advertisers. She, who previously served as a New Zealand diplomat, joined Facebook in 2011 and says she witnessed the company's growth from a "front-row seat." Now, she wants to reveal some of the "decisions and ethical compromises" that occurred during her tenure.

Wen-Williams describes her experience working in Facebook's senior team in her memoir, "Careless People." She said that Zuckerberg usually got up at noon, liked karaoke, and didn't like being beaten at board games like "Risk." "I didn't realize you were supposed to let him win. I was a bit naive," she told us.

Wen-Williams said that her allegations about the company's close relationship with China reveal Facebook's decision-making process at the time. "China was Mark Zuckerberg's white whale," meaning the goal he was obsessively pursuing. The country is the world's largest social media market, but Facebook, as well as sites like X and YouTube, remain blocked.

Wen-Williams claims that in the mid-2010s, as part of negotiations with the Chinese government, Facebook considered allowing the Chinese government future access to the user data of Chinese citizens. "He was working closely with the Chinese Communist Party to build a censorship tool... basically trying to develop something that went against many of Facebook's fundamental principles," she told the BBC.

Wen-Williams said that governments often asked for explanations of how certain aspects of Facebook's software worked, but were told it was proprietary information. "But when it came to China, that veil was lifted," she said. "Engineers were brought out. They were briefed in detail on every aspect, and Facebook made sure that these Chinese officials were fully briefed on the products so that they could not only understand them, but also test Facebook on the censored version of the product."

Meta told the BBC that such claims about China have been "widely reported" at the time. In her SEC complaint, Wen-Williams also claims that Zuckerberg and other Meta executives made "misleading statements" in response to congressional inquiries about China.

In a response to Congress in 2018, Zuckerberg said that Facebook "cannot know exactly how the [Chinese] government will seek to apply its laws and regulations to content." Meta told the BBC that Zuckerberg provided accurate testimony, adding that the company does not operate a service in China.

Wen-Williams said that most Facebook executives don't allow their own children to use Facebook. "They have screen bans. They certainly don't allow them to use the product."

She also said that the company has been using algorithms to target and categorize vulnerable teenagers, which is true. "The algorithm can infer that they feel worthless or unhappy," she claimed. The company (which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp) can identify when a teenage girl has deleted a selfie on its platform and then notify a beauty company that now is a good time to advertise to that child.

Wen-Williams said she "felt sick" at the thought of this and tried to resist, "though I knew it was futile." "They said, 'The business units think this is exactly what we should be doing. We have this amazing product, we can attract young people, and it's a very important advertising group.'"

Meta told the BBC that this is untrue—it has never offered tools to target people based on their emotional state, and that the research it has done in the past was to help marketers understand how people express themselves on Facebook, not to target advertising.

Overall, Wen-Williams said that the company is not doing enough to address social media safety issues for young people. "This is one of the most valuable companies in the world. They could invest in this and make it a real priority and do more to address this issue."

Facebook said it is transparent about ad targeting and has shared updates on how to create age-appropriate ad experiences for teens. It also said it has launched "teen accounts" with built-in protections for tens of millions of young people and is giving parents more oversight of their teens' use of the app.

In addition to poor performance, Meta said the 45-year-old was also fired for "toxic behavior" after she made "misleading and unfounded allegations" of harassment. But Wen-Williams told the BBC that she was fired after complaining about one of her bosses—current Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan—making inappropriate comments.

Meta told us that she was funded by "anti-Facebook activists" and that she is not a whistleblower. "Whistleblower status protects communications with the government, not disgruntled activists trying to sell books," the company said.

Regarding Wen-Williams' book, Meta has confirmed to the BBC that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States to "prevent further dissemination of defamation and misinformation."

To counter this, Wen-Williams' legal representative said: "Since news of her memoir broke, Meta has made numerous false and inconsistent statements about Sarah... While Meta's statements attempt to mislead the public, the book itself speaks volumes."

We asked her why she was speaking out now. She said she wants Meta to change because it "affects every aspect of our daily lives," and we need to make sure "we get the future we deserve." "We are at a moment where technology and political leaders come together, and when they combine forces, it has a lot of impact on all of us. I think it's really important to understand that and to understand that you see all these engineers influencing the highest levels of government."