On April 9, Sarah Wynn-Williams, former Director of Global Public Policy at Facebook, now Meta, testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism hearing that she saw Meta “repeatedly undermine US national security and betray American values… to win favor with Beijing and build an $18 billion dollar business in China.”
According to Wynn-Williams, she “witnessed Meta work ‘hand in glove’ with the Chinese Communist Party to construct and test custom-built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics.”
She further testified that she “watched as executives decided to provide the Chinese Communist Party with access to Meta user data – including that of Americans.”
Wynn-Williams claims that Meta’s business dealings in China, which allegedly included briefings on emerging technologies, have directly contributed to China’s recent developments of AI models for military use.
Wynn-Williams further claims that Meta is silencing her through a gag order which even prohibits her from speaking to members of Congress. She also noted that she had filed formal whistleblower complaints with the SEC and DOJ.
Through the SEC Whistleblower Program, qualified whistleblowers, individuals who voluntarily provide original information which leads to a successful enforcement action, are eligible to receive an award of 10-30% of the funds recovered in the case.
At the Senate hearing, titled “A Time for Truth: Oversight of Meta’s Foreign Relations and Representations to the United States Congress,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a longtime Congressional advocate for whistleblowers, stressed the importance of whistleblowers like Wynn-Williams.
“These tech companies, sitting in their ivory towers in Silicon Valley, look to silence whistleblowers,” Grassley stated. “They want to keep these brave men and women from telling Congress, government regulators and the American public about alleged wrongdoing at their companies.”
Grassley further stated: “Recently, I wrote to Open A.I. about their efforts to silence whistleblowers. To address this, I’m working on bipartisan legislation to implement whistleblower protections in the Artificial Intelligence industry.”
Over the past year, advocates and lawmakers have suggested that there is an urgent need to for better AI whistleblower protections to ensure that employees understand that they can raise concerns to federal regulatory or law enforcement authorities to ensure that the technology is developed and deployed safely.
National Whistleblower Center has set up an Action Alert allowing supporters to write to Congress demanding protections for artificial intelligence whistleblowers.
Join NWC in Taking Action:
Demand Protections for Artificial Intelligence Whistleblowers
