Facebook ‘worked hand in glove’ with China, claims ex-director | Global News Avenue

A former senior Facebook executive told the BBC how the social media giant was working on “gloves” with the Chinese government to allow Beijing to censor and control China’s content.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg agreed that Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former global public policy director, said in order to earn returns from the Chinese market with hundreds of millions of users, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was believed to agree to hide posts about the pandemic virus until it can be checked by Chinese authorities.

Ms. Williams (claimed in the new book) also filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. market regulator, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing Meta of misleading investors. The BBC has reviewed the complaint.

Facebook’s parent company Meta said Ms. Wynn-Williams’ job was terminated in 2017.

It added that this is “we were once interested” in China’s operational services. “We ultimately chose not to explore the ideas we explore.”

Meta introduced Mark Zuckerberg’s 2019 comment when he said: “We can never agree with what we operate there and they (China) will never let us in.”

Ms Wynn-Williams said Facebook also used algorithms to find when young people feel vulnerable, part of a study targeting advertisers.

She was a former New Zealand diplomat and joined Facebook in 2011 and said she watched the company grow from the “front seats”.

Now, she wants to show some “decision-making and moral compromises”, which she says continues while she is there. She added that this is a critical moment because “many of the people I work with… will be at the heart of introducing AI”.

Ms. Wyne Williams in her memoir, The Careless Man, portrays photos of her accusations of working on the senior Facebook team.

She said Mr. Zuckerberg did not get up before noon, liked karaoke, nor did he like being beaten up in board games, such as risk. She told us: “I didn’t realize you should let him win.

But Ms Wyne Williams said her allegations about the company’s close ties to China provided insight into Facebook’s decisions at the time.

“China is Mark Zuckerberg’s beluga whale,” Ms. Wynn-Williams said.

The country is the world’s largest social media market, but access with X and YouTube remains blocked.

“This is part of the board game he hasn’t conquered,” she said.

Ms. Wynn-Williams claimed that in the mid-2010s, Facebook believed it would allow its future access to user data from Chinese citizens as part of negotiations with the Chinese government.

“He is working with the Chinese Communist Party’s gloves and building a censorship tool … is basically working to develop the opposite of many principles based on Facebook,” she told the BBC.

Ms Wynn-Williams said the government often asked to explain how Facebook software works but was told it was proprietary information.

“But when it comes to Chinese people, the curtains are pulled open,” she said.

“Engineers were brought out. They all went through all aspects, and Facebook is making sure these Chinese officials are getting good enough that they can not only understand these products, but also test on Facebook the reviewed version of these products they are building.”

Meta told the BBC that such claims about China had been “widely reported”.

Wynn-Ms Williams also alleged in the SEC complaint that Mr. Zuckerberg and other senior executives issued “misleading statements…responding to Congressional inquiries.”

Mr. Zuckerberg said in 2018 that Facebook “can’t know exactly how the (Chinese) government will seek legal and regulatory applications for content”

Meta told the BBC that Mr Zuckerberg gave accurate testimony, adding that it did not provide services in China.

According to Ms. Wynn-Williams, most Facebook executives do not allow their children to be on Facebook. “They have a screen ban. They certainly don’t allow them to use the product.”

But she said Report for 2017 – The company has been using algorithms to target and classify disadvantaged teenagers – is true.

“The algorithm can infer that they feel worthless or unhappy,” she said.

She claims the company — which also has Instagram and Whatsapp — can determine when a teenage girl deleted a selfie on its platform and then notified the beauty company that it would be a good time for kids targeting advertising.

Ms Wynn-Williams said she was “disgusted” by the idea and tried to push back “even though I knew it was futile.”

“They said: ‘The business side thinks that’s exactly what we should do. We have this amazing product and we can attract young people, and it’s a very important advertising area.'”

Mehta told the BBC that it was wrong – it never provided tools for people based on their emotional state – the research it did before was to help marketers understand how people express on Facebook, not for advertising.

Overall, Ms Wynn-Williams said the company’s security on social media is not enough to address the safety of young people.

“This is one of the most valuable companies in the world. They can invest in it and make it a real priority and do more fixes.”

Facebook says about advertising iconic and Updates about its method have been shared Create age-appropriate advertising experiences for teenagers.

It also says it has introduced “teen accounts” for tens of millions of young people with built-in protection. It also says that this gives parents more supervision over their use of the app.

In addition to underperforming, Meta said the 45-year-old was also fired for “toxic behavior” after “misleading and unfounded harassment allegations.”

But Ms Wyne Williams told the BBC that one of her boss Joel Kaplan complained about inappropriate comments, now the chief global affairs officer for Meta.

Meta told us that she was paid by “anti-Facebook Activist” and she was not a whistleblower.

“The identity of the whistleblower protects communication with the government, rather than dissatisfied activists who want to sell books,” it said.

Regarding Ms. Wynn-Williams’ book, Meta has confirmed to the BBC that it has initiated legal action in the United States to “stop further distribution of defamatory and untrue information.”

To address this, Ms. Wynn-Williams’ legal representative said: “Since her memoir breaks the news, Meta has made many false and inconsistent statements about Sarah…and Meta’s statement is trying to mislead the public, and the book speaks for the book, which says what it means.”

We asked her why she said it now. She said she hopes Meta changes it “to affect most of our daily lives” and we need to make sure “we get the future we deserve.”

“We are in this moment where technical and political leaders come together and with the combination of strength, it has a big impact on us all.

“I think it’s very important to understand that and understand all the engineers you look at the highest level of influence.”