The ticking timebomb strapped to Meta and the first Big Tech bro being jailed just became deafening - and oh boy, Mark Zuckerberg’s on borrowed time.
A senior Meta exec-turned-whistleblower just used a Congressional hearing to weave decades of disinformation, manipulation, and lobbying, into a noose.
New Zealander Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former diplomat who ran global public policy alongside Zuck and sidekick Sheryl Sandberg, detonated a two-hour truth bomb.
She cast her eyes down, drew breath, then told the committee:
💣 Meta secretly helped China advance AI, enabled DeepSeek, embed AI in weapons, and undermine rivals costing Nvidia and OpenAI billions.
💣 Meta put teams to work to create tools - called Phase 0 - that censored and spied on China’s political enemies and then lied under oath about it to Congress.
💣 Execs joked about never allowing their kids to use Meta’s tools because they knew how dreadfully damaging and awful they were.
💣 And Zuck personally ordered execs to “dominate, crush” the news industry, while sucking up journalist’s work to train AIs to foment rage for engagement and ads.
Statement after statement. Ms Wynn-Williams said “Yes Senator, that’s my understanding. “No Senator, that was a lie.” It was relentless.
And the geopolitical impact of her words has outraged Senators across America’s enormous political divide. Immediately a slew of investigations were ordered.
Zuck was told Senators were coming for him to answer allegations of “potentially illegal behaviour” in aiding a military adversary.
Senators vowed to sunset Section 230 which has provided Meta and other tech giants with protection from prosecution for content they publish.
They said they would re-slate the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) which was derailed despite a 90-3 pro-vote after multi-million-dollar Meta lobbying, and
Create new whistleblower protections specifically around the national security implications and the AI arms race.
Rising Republican star Josh Hawley threw the first punches. “Facebook’s stopped at nothing to prevent today’s testimony,” he said. “They’ve gone to war.”
But it was his Democrat colleague Richard Blumenthal who landed the right hook.
He said: “The American people are going to be pretty outraged that Mark Zuckerberg sold out America to China and imperilled our national security for a buck.”
Goddam, rootin’ tootin’ right Senator.
This hearing destroys any lingering political support Meta had that might have protected it in next week’s antitrust trial.
Lose, and it’ll mean the forced sale of Instagram and WhatsApp, and the collapse of Meta’s $164 billion in ad revenue, and the power that affords.
That leaves Zuckerberg diminished, exposed, and vulnerable, and if public anger over child harms converges with political fury over China, it’ll land Zuck to jail.
Game. On.
It’s war
Ms Wynn-Williams’ words detonated on Meta with lethal precision, with Zuck and former side-kick Sandberg’s names all over it.
She’s the most senior Merta whistleblower so far. She worked directly with Zuck and ‘Lean In’ Sandberg for years as the director of global public policy.
Senators said Meta was terrified of what she knows. It’s threatened her with a $50,000 fine every time she mentions the word Facebook, even if what she says is true.
Senator Hawley said: “Facebook have gone scorched Earth to prevent her from telling what she knows. They’ve sued her. They’ve sought a gag order against her.
“As we sit here today, Facebook is attempting her total financial ruin. They are attempting to destroy her personally. They are attempting to destroy her reputation.
“Why? Why is Facebook so desperate? What is it that they are so afraid of? We’re going to find out.”
We were not going to be disappointed.
Skunk at the picnic
“I saw Meta executives repeatedly undermine US national security and betray American values,” she opened.
“In secret, to win favour with Beijing, and build an $18 billion business.
“We’re engaged in a high stakes AI arms race against China, and executives lied about what they were doing to employees, shareholders, Congress, and the public.”
Her goal was to expose “illegal and dangerous activities” that “started with a betrayal of core American values”.
“Mark Zuckerberg pledges himself a free speech champion, yet I witnessed Meta work hand-in-glove with China to construct censorship tools that silenced critics.
“When Beijing demanded Facebook delete the account of a Chinese dissident living on American soil, they did it - then lied to Congress.
“I watched executives decide to provide the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with access to Meta user data, including that of Americans.
“Meta does not dispute these facts. They can’t. I have the documents. As recently as Monday, they claimed they do not operate services in China. Another lie.
“Their own SEC filings from last year show that China is now Meta's second biggest market. (I broke this story in January.)
“Meanwhile, Meta’s AI model, Llama, has contributed significantly to Chinese advances in AI, like DeepSeek.”
💣💣💣 Ouch!
Aldrin
The Kiwi former diplomat was just getting started.
“Facebook's secret mission to get into China was called Project Aldrin and was restricted to need to know staff. There was no bridge too far.
“Meta started briefing the CCP as early as 2015. Briefings focused on critical emerging technologies, including AI.
“The explicit goal being to help China out compete American companies. There’s a straight line from these briefings to recent revelations that China is developing AI models for military use, relying on Meta’s Llama model.
“Meta’s internal docs described their pitch for why China should allow them into the market. Quote: ‘Helping China increase global influence and promote the China dream’.
“The truth matters. I filed a shareholder resolution asking Meta’s board to investigate, and whistleblower complaints with the SEC and DOJ.
“The measure of how important these truths are is directly proportional to the ferocity of Meta’s efforts to censor and intimidate me.
“They’ve bought a case against me for hundreds of millions of dollars. This order is so expansive that it prohibits me from speaking with members of Congress.
“The people deserve to know the truth. Meta’s willing to compromise its values, sacrifice the security of users, and undermine American interests to build its China business.
“It’s been happening for years, covered up by lies, and continues to this day. I’m here at considerable personal risk because you have the power and authority to hold them accountable.”
💣💣💣 and then began a feeding frenzy…
Meta’s secret $18 billion China business
“Meta says it’s not doing business in China. Is that accurate?” asked Senator Hawley.
“That’s not accurate,” Ms Wynn-Williams responded. “Facebook has an $18.3 billion business in China.”
Senator Hawley followed up: “Profit and power. Let’s talk about what Meta’s willing to do...”
💣💣💣 uh oh…
Lying to US power
“Zuckerberg talks a lot to The White House about free speech, and Facebook will protect the rights of all. Have you known Zuckerberg to censor on behalf of China?” Senator Hawley asked in a doozy of a Dorothy Dixer.
Minions whipped out a board showing internal Meta comms between execs chatting about deleting the account of a Chinese dissident in the US.
“Facebook said that this was a temporary glitch. Was that true to your knowledge?” he asked.
“Uh, no. In fact, Facebook shut down this dissident’s page,” she replied.
The internal docs reveal Meta engineers working on code to “demonstrate we can address mutual interests” with China.
“Well, Senator Hawley, one thing the Chinese Communist Party and Mark Zuckerberg share is that they want to silence their critics,” Ms Wynn-Williams added.
“I can say that from personal experience. I think they came to the right man.”
💣💣💣 Oh, nice zinger…
Phase Zero
Senator Hawley then revealed more internal Meta comms showing what it was willing to do to win access to the Chinese market.
Pointing, he said: “Here’s Facebook engineers offering to create a censorship regime that allows Facebook to block all traffic the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t want.”
The project was called Phase Zero. Engineers are caught chatting about using it to “build trust” with China. One high fives: “Great stuff, guys, let’s do it.”
Ms Wynn-Williams told the committee: “They’re talking about activating censorship tools on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Astounded, Senator Hawley asked: “Facebook created censorship tools that allow them to do the censoring of the Chinese government?
“…for a murderous regime. The most barbaric, evil regime, and our free speech champion Zuckerberg with his engineers actively working to censor on their behalf?”
💣💣💣 “Yes Senator.”
Selling out America
Senator Hawley said Meta had repeatedly assured Congress it would never compromise user data. Never cross that “red line”.
Ms Wynn-Williams, he asked, was Meta willing to cross that red line for China?
“Yes, Senator.” Then more internal docs.
One line says: “In exchange for the ability to do operations in China, Facebook will agree to grant the Chinese government access to Chinese user data.”
Hong Kong citizens engaged in pro-democracy demonstrations against Beijing, and citizens in Taiwan, outside China, were part of the bargain.
“For profits in China, there was virtually nothing they weren’t willing to do,” Senator Hawley said.
💣💣💣 Time to delete your Insta?
Meta briefed China on AI
Senator Chuck Grassley has seen some stuff as the longest-serving Republican in history, but he was dumbfounded Meta was helping China outcompete US companies.
“Part of the value proposition Meta could provide the CCP was their expertise in helping Chinese officials,” Ms Wynn-Williams said.
Execs including Zuck and Sandberg met with CCP officials.
“They explicitly called out US firms. They said: We can help you to not have to rely on Cisco or IBM. We can help you with technical expertise,” she said.
“They were offering to build more efficient data centres, or to ensure engineers better understood technology like photo tagging.
“Meta has the best minds of a generation. They’ve employed the smartest graduates working on cutting-edge technologies, like AI.
“So, who better, if you’re the Chinese Communist Party, to teach you about these technologies than Meta?”
Then a depth charge. “Understanding the extent of this, I think, is a really great area for your investigation.”
💣💣💣 Y’all effin’ think so?
A $1 trillion Llama bell
Asked whether briefings were ongoing, Ms Wynn-Williams responded: “Chinese researchers used (Meta’s) Llama model for AI weapons and it powers DeepSeek.”
DeepSeek wiped $1 trillion off US markets in January and led Meta’s rival Nvidia to lose $600 billion in the largest single day fall in US market history.
“There were so many meetings with the CCP,” Ms Wynn-Williams testified. “Right from the top.
“Mark and Sheryl, all the way down to regular engineers providing briefings on cutting-edge technology, like facial recognition, which is obviously very helpful to the CCP.
“Zuckerberg met with Lu Wei. There were lots of meetings with the Politburo, senior CCP members…”
💣💣💣 Errr, Lu Wei was China’s deputy of propaganda.
Throwing rivals under the bus
As America trades tariffs with China in a global trade war, Senator Hawley pivoted.
“You have an American company, going to our chief foreign adversary, on whom we currently have tariffs of, like, 10 billion per cent, and saying: Hey, we’d love to help you beat all of these other American companies. That’s extraordinary.”
“Was information related to artificial intelligence part of these briefings? Did Facebook brief the CCP on AI?” he asks.
“Yes, Senator. I think this is a great area of investigation for your committee.”
💣💣💣 Mic drop moment
Winner takes all market
What was Meta’s motive? Money?? Something else???
“China is rapidly trying to increase its technological expertise and grow its own home-grown tech,” Ms Wynn-Williams replied. “It’s incredibly valuable to have the brightest minds in the world show you how.”
Meta saw a chance to use its open-source AI to take the lead. “There’s a lot of money on the line,” she said.
“It’s helpful if you want open source to prevail to have a strong threat from a Chinese model.
“You can say it’s really important that America wins, and we’re the American open-source option.
Coin drop. Senator Hawley noted that this would catapult Meta AI ahead of OpenAI and other US closed-source rivals.
“It’s a winner-takes-all situation, and I think that that would set up Meta in a very strong position,” Ms Wynn-Williams added deadpan.
💣💣💣 It’s all about the money, money, money…
Zuck’s red line is not my red line
Senators questioned whether Meta’s internal security experts raised concerns about ties with China.
She said: “They noted the Chinese would get access to the data.
“In discussions they said: ‘My red line as a security engineer is to not be comfortable with this, but my red line is not Mark Zuckerberg’s red line.’
Senators asked her whether she sensed Zuck had a red line. “Nothing happened without his approval,” she said.
“This was unlike any other project I worked on at Meta, it was so centrally led.
“Zuckerberg was so personally invested, he learnt Mandarin. He travelled to China more than any other country. Had weekly Mandarin sessions with employees.
“It’s hard to overstate how different this project was to any other I experienced in my many years of the company. He was travelling to Beijing.”
💣💣💣 China crisis
The price of silence
Facebook tasked engineers with creating surveillance tools within its platforms to spy on Hong Kong protestors and share the details with Chinese security agencies.
Ms Wynn-Williams said “virality counters” were created so any post with “10,000 views would automatically trigger a review from the chief editor.
“And what was particularly surprising is that the virality counters were not just installed, but activated, in Hong Kong and also in Taiwan.”
💣💣💣 Taiwan is ground zero of the world’s semiconductor trade…
Zuck wraps himself in the flag
When asked whether Zuck was a fake patriot, Wynn-Williams said: “The greatest trick Zuckerberg ever pulled was wrapping the American flag around himself.
“He called himself a patriot and said he didn’t offer services in China while he spent a decade building an $18 billion business there.”
“And he continues to wrap the flag around himself as we move into the next era of artificial intelligence.”
💣💣💣 Is that why we used to have fact checkers?
Teens are “vulnerable, yet valuable”
Focus then turned to child harms. As well as next week’s antitrust break-up trial, Meta faces another suit from US States for addicting kids for profit. It really is a cesspool.
Senators recently failed to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) which sought to combat teen addiction and harms through social.
Despite it passing the Senate on a 91:3 vote, it then failed in the House after Meta’s multi-million dollar lobbying effort.
Ms Wynn-Williams said: “Facebook targets 13 to 17-year-olds. It can identify when they are feeling worthless, helpless, or a failure.
“Advertisers understand that when people don’t feel good about themselves, it’s a good time to pitch a product. People are more likely to buy.
Meta “let advertisers know these 13-17-year-olds were failing, depressed, and told them now’s a good time to serve them an ad.
“As a mother of three, that’s one of the more difficult aspects to reconcile with this company. They regard (teens) as vulnerable, yet very valuable.”
💣💣💣 Advertisers might want to reconsider their actions…
We’d never let our kids use Meta
The committee heard bombshell evidence that execs refused to allow their kids access to Meta platforms because they knew the harms.
Ms Wynn-Williams said: “Executives would always speak about how they have screen bans in the house.
“Or I would ask whether they had used a new product, and they’d say: My teenager’s not allowed on Facebook. I don’t let them on Instagram.
“These executives, they know. They know the harm this product does. They don’t allow their own teenagers to use the products that Meta develops.”
💣💣💣 How do they sleep at night?
Dominate, crush the news industry
Next, Senators turned to Meta’s deliberate takedown of the news industry. Several of them are working on a bill to empower publishers in their negotiations.
Ms Wynn-Williams had some tips.
“The key thing Meta’s obsessed with is engagement,” she said. “Keeping people’s attention on services Meta owns for as long as possible.
“The work of publishers and many dedicated journalists is increasingly being utilised to keep engagement, often using AI based on the work of journalists.”
When she discussed it with Zuckerberg, he told her: “You’re compromising with a dying industry rather than dominating it, crushing it”.
“Every citizen has seen the consequences of these actions, and I think we’re all the poorer for it,” she added.
“What this company wants is to dominate as much time and attention as they can for as many billions as they can.
“And they’ve learned outrage is a really good way to do that, and whatever it takes to have people glued to these services, in their power, in their thrall, they’ll do it.”
💣💣💣 Let’s go to f*cking war people…
Trumpeting sad moms
Another leaked document showed Meta engineers wondering whether they should use data on emotionally distressed new mothers to target ads.
Ms Wynn-Williams added: “…and beyond that, things that concern teen girls, like body confidence, weight loss.
“As a mother, it’s very hard to say this, but the discussions I had with the business’ leaders was that we just don’t need to do this. We’re a trillion-dollar company.
“What was explained was that we’ve got the most valuable segment of the population. Advertisers really want 13 to 17-year-olds. We should trumpet it from the rooftop.”
💣💣💣 What a miserable business…
We’re coming for you Zuck
She was done. Immediately launching an array of follow-up investigations, Senators had one last question. Did Ms Wynn-Williams believe Zuck’s facade?
She didn’t hesitate: “If he is such a fan of freedom of speech, why’s he trying to silence me?” she began.
“This is a man who wears many different costumes. When I was there, he wanted the President of China to name his first child.
“He was learning Mandarin. He was censoring to his heart’s content. His new costume is MMA fighting, or free speech.
“We don’t know what the next costume is going to be, but it’ll be something different. It’s whatever gets him closest to power.
“He has proven time and time again that you cannot believe his answers.
“He’s lied to Congress, he’s lied to employees, and he’s lied to Americans. And that’s why I'm asking this committee to hold him accountable.”
Senator Hawley added: “I have a message for Zuckerberg: We will be waiting for you.
“Whatever tools and instruments and powers we have we will use to get to the bottom of all the facts here.”
It’s not TikTok Meta needs to worry about, it’s the ticking of the Doomsday Clock.
Zuck, buddy, you might want to pack a toothbrush and plan for your stay at Club Fed.
Next week, antitrust. #LFG.
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