$50,000 for every truth told
5,000,000,000 Chinese Yuan pocketed for every lie.
Ever since the surprise release of her book last month, it’s been clear that Sarah Wynn-Williams, former Facebook executive, has information about Meta that the public needs (and wants) to hear. But in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, she detailed some truly horrifying allegations against the company—allegations that explain why Meta’s trying so hard to shut her up.
“If a 13-year-old girl would delete a selfie, that was considered a good time to try to sell her a beauty product.” -Sarah Wynn-Williams, testifying about Meta before Congress on Wednesday
Wynn-Williams spent several hours answering questions from a bipartisan group of senators, exposing chilling details about Meta's secret longstanding relationship with China and its emotional targeting of teens. A practice where, according to Wynn-Williams, Meta would specifically track when 13 to 17 year-olds were feeling depressed or emotionally vulnerable, because this would be “a good time to serve them an ad.”
“If a 13-year-old girl would delete a selfie, that was considered a good time to try to sell her a beauty product,” Wynn-Williams said. “This was taken as a signal and shared with advertisers.”
She said she tried to get an executive to stop the practice, telling him that “we just don’t need to do this. Meta’s now a trillion dollar company. It is not short of money. It doesn’t need to do this.”
But Meta prized this demographic—again, we’re talking children between the ages of 13 to 17—as “vulnerable yet very valuable.” She said the executive told her that “we’ve got the most valuable segment of the population. Advertisers really want to reach 13 to 17 year-olds. We have them. We should be trumpeting it from the rooftops.”
“These executives—they know,” said Wynn-Williams. “They know the harm this product does. They don’t allow their own teenagers to use the products that Meta develops. The hypocrisy is at every level.”
Of course, when it came to their own children, Wynn-Williams said, there would be no social media. She described Silicon Valley as a place “filled with wooden Montessori toys,” where tech executives implemented screen bans in their own homes, and forbade their own teens from using Facebook and Instagram—all while pushing these products out into the wider world.
“These executives—they know,” she said. “They know the harm this product does. They don’t allow their own teenagers to use the products that Meta develops. The hypocrisy is at every level.”
That’s not even getting into the $18 billion business Zuckerberg was allegedly building in China even as he publicly represented he was not offering any services there.
Wynn-Williams, who has been placed under a gag order since the publication of her book, said she had since gotten “very… aggressive threats from this company” and that “the last four weeks has been very difficult.” Remarkably, Meta threatened to make her pay $50,000 for every disparaging comment she made about the company—even if what she shared was true and in response to a question asked by a member of Congress. (I guess it’s still free speech at 50 large a sentence, just expensive free speech?)
Of course, it’s cheaper if you just lie, I guess. Several of the untruths Zuckerberg told Congress in previous testimony were called out over the course of the hearing, and while we all want answers, we are probably not going to get them from him—or at least not accurate ones. Wynn-Williams closed out her testimony saying: He's "proven time and time again that you cannot believe his answers. He's lied to members of Congress, he's lied to employees, and he’s lied to Americans."
We’re glad a mom of three was willing to tell the truth. Wynn-Williams feeding her toddler oatmeal when a gag order showed up at her door is the epitome of an everyday person standing up to the powerful. If you’re a tech worker or ex-employee with something to say, you can join this movement—and you don’t have to do it alone. Hit us up here.