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By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. Senate investigative subcommittee on Tuesday opened a review into efforts by Facebook parent Meta Platforms to gain access to the Chinese market and is seeking documents from the company.
Senator Ron Johnson, who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, joined by Senator Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat, and Senator Josh Hawley, asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about allegations that it worked to build censorship tools for the Chinese Communist Party as part of its attempt to gain entry to the Chinese market, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The senators want Meta to disclose extensive records including all company communications or records of meetings with Chinese government officials since 2014. They want Meta to do this by April 21.
The senators cited reports in the recently published book "Careless People," by former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams, that in 2014 the company allegedly developed a "three-year plan" to gain access to the Chinese market. The initiative was code-named "Project Aldrin," the book said.
The senators' letter said the "accounts are corroborated by internal records documenting these efforts reviewed by the Subcommittee."
A Meta spokesperson rejected the claims.
"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," the company said. "We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we'd explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019."
Blumenthal said the issue raises serious concerns. "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," he said.
The letter seeks records related to Facebook/Meta’s subsidiaries and partners in China and to its launch of apps in China, including Colorful Balloons, Flash, Boomerang, Layout, Hyperlapse and MSQRD, and all communications referring or relating to "Project Aldrin."
The letter also seeks records since 2014 "relating to any effort to censor or otherwise remove content at the government’s request" and about an abandoned effort to connect an undersea telecommunications cable between California and Hong Kong.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washingtonditing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)
