China · Meta · Mark Zuckerberg · Republicans · The Guardian Technology
Meta trying to destroy whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, US senator confirms
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source + 3 references discovered via search. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
✓ KHAO Verified
A US senator has accused Meta of using lawfare in “efforts to destroy” a whistleblower who made allegations about the social media company’s dealings with China and its treatment of teenagers.
Key facts
- Meta also disputes that she is threatened with bankruptcy, stating in legal documents that she was paid a $780,000 (£580,000) severance package, which was the subject of intense legal negotiations
- New York magazine has previously reported that Wynn-Williams was paid an advance for her book of more than $500,000
- In a letter to its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the Republican senator Josh Hawley demanded to know what measures Meta had taken to monitor Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former global head of public
- He also accused the firm of trying to make “truthful speech so perilous that no whistleblower like Ms Wynn-Williams can ever afford it
Summary
In a letter to its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the Republican senator Josh Hawley demanded to know what measures Meta had taken to monitor Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former global head of public policy, and her family. He also accused the firm of trying to make “truthful speech so perilous that no whistleblower like Ms Wynn-Williams can ever afford it”. Wynn-Williams made her allegations in a memoir, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism but under an interim arbitration ruling secured by Meta she is unable to speak about the book, which contains claims about it working with the Chinese government on censorship tools, and its platforms’ negative impacts on teenagers.