Facebook allegedly censored content to benefit the Chinese government

A former Facebook employee alleged that the social network built a system of censorship of content that benefited the Chinese government in a failed attempt to operate inside China, the Washington Post reported.

The complaint, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Sarah Wynn-Williams, former Facebook Global Policy Director who worked on the team in charge of the company's relations with the Asian country, notes that the firm began trying to enter the Chinese market in 2014, which is why it was willing to make significant concessions to gain access to a large number of potential users.

Wynn-Williams adds that on that occasion, Facebook and its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg agreed to make concessions that were contrary to the company's principles, such as having agreed to store data of Chinese users, including those from Hong Kong, on local servers, which would have made it easier for the Asian country's government to access the personal information of its citizens.

It should be noted that Hong Kong users previously enjoyed greater protection.

According to the complaint, in 2015 Facebook developed a censorship system whereby it could automatically identify and remove content that included prohibited concepts.

The company also agreed to appoint a person to monitor content uploaded to the Chinese version of Facebook with the aim of removing certain posts and even disabling the platform in the event of "social unrest" in China.

Attempts at rapprochement continued until 2017, when Facebook restricted the account of Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman who often speaks out against the Asian country's government.

On that occasion, the company argued that it deleted the account of Wengui, who then resided in New York, because the businessman shared personal information of other people without their consent. However, the whistleblower claims that the decision was made under pressure from Chinese authorities.

Facebook even secretly launched some apps in China, but they failed to enter the market.

In addition, China banned the messaging app WhatsApp in 2017, two years after it was acquired by Facebook.

Despite all its efforts, the company failed to enter the Chinese market, the whistleblower claims.

Meta defends itself

Meta, Facebook's parent company, rejected the allegations and took aim at Wynn-Williams.

The company said the whistleblower was fired for poor performance, likely suggesting that the complaint was made out of possible anger the former employee had with the company. It also added that it does not currently operate in China, although it acknowledged that it is "no secret" that it was interested in doing so in the past as part of Facebook's vision of connecting the world.

Meta further stated that it ultimately decided not to move forward with that goal, as announced by Mark Zuckerberg in 2019.