A U.S. Senate investigative subcommittee has initiated a review of efforts by Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, to access the Chinese market. The subcommittee is seeking documents from the company regarding these efforts.
Senator Ron Johnson, chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with Senator Richard Blumenthal and Senator Josh Hawley, has questioned Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about allegations that the company developed censorship tools for the Chinese Communist Party in its pursuit of market entry.
The senators are requesting that Meta provide extensive records, including all communications or meetings with Chinese government officials since 2014, by April 21.
They referenced claims from the recently published book "Careless People," by former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams, which states that in 2014, the company developed a "three-year plan," code-named "Project Aldrin," to gain access to the Chinese market.
The senators noted that internal records reviewed by the Subcommittee corroborate these accounts.
A Meta spokesperson dismissed the allegations, stating, "This is 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. We ultimately opted not to pursue the ideas we'd explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019."
Blumenthal expressed serious concerns regarding the matter, saying, "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."
The letter also demands records related to Facebook/Meta’s subsidiaries and partners in China, the launch of various apps including Colorful Balloons, Flash, Boomerang, Layout, Hyperlapse, and MSQRD, and all communications pertaining to "Project Aldrin." Furthermore, it seeks records since 2014 related to efforts to censor content at the government’s request and information about a telecommunications cable between California and Hong Kong.