{"id":58468,"date":"2025-04-11T03:09:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T03:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/ex-meta-exec-tells-senate-zuck-dangled-us-citizen-data-in-bid-to-enter-china\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T03:09:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T03:09:56","slug":"ex-meta-exec-tells-senate-zuck-dangled-us-citizen-data-in-bid-to-enter-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/ex-meta-exec-tells-senate-zuck-dangled-us-citizen-data-in-bid-to-enter-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Meta exec tells Senate Zuck dangled US citizen data in bid to enter China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook’s former director of global public policy told a Senate committee that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was willing to do almost anything to get the social network into China – including, she alleged, offering up Americans’ data.<\/p>\n

Speaking to<\/a> the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism Wednesday, Sarah Wynn-Williams alleged Meta misled the public about its operations in China and was so eager to access the nation’s 1.4 billion citizens that its corporate leadership agreed to provide the Chinese Communist Party with access to user data, including that of Americans.<\/p>\n

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Facebook’s secret mission to get into China was called ‘Project Aldrin’ and was restricted to need-to-know staff<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“Facebook\u2019s 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 built a physical pipeline connecting the United States and China,” she told<\/a> [PDF] senators in written testimony.<\/p>\n

The mention of a \u201cphysical pipeline\u201d is a reference to a submarine cable that Google and Meta planned<\/a> to build between Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Following pressure from US national security agencies, who worried that China\u2019s control of Hong Kong represented a security risk, the route of the cable was changed<\/a> and now connects to Taiwan and the Philippines instead.<\/p>\n

“Meta executives ignored warnings that this would provide backdoor access to the Chinese Communist Party, allowing them to intercept the personal data and private messages of American citizens,\u201d Wynn-Williams testified. \u201cThe only reason China does not currently have access to US user data through this pipeline is because Congress stepped in.”<\/p>\n