Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Alex Wong via Getty Images 2025-04-02T20:28:12Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Meta blocks ex-exec Sarah Wynn-Williams from speaking to Congress on China dealings, her lawyer says.The block follows an arbitration ruling enforcing a non-disparagement clause in her severance.A Senate Subcommittee is investigating Meta's China ties, seeking records and details based on Wynn-Williams' memoir.Meta has blocked former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams from communicating with members of Congress who are investigating the company's dealings with the Chinese Communist Party, her lawyer said.Ravi Naik, the legal counsel for Wynn-Williams, told Business Insider that his client is barred from speaking to lawmakers because of an emergency arbitration ruling Meta obtained last month. The ruling enforces a non-disparagement clause in Wynn-Williams' severance agreement. It comes just as a bipartisan Senate investigation cites her memoir, Careless People, as the catalyst for a probe into Meta's dealings in China."Congress has made it clear they expect to be able to communicate with Ms. Wynn-Williams, and my client wishes to do so," Naik said in a statement. "Meta has, however, silenced Ms. Wynn-Williams through an arbitration process, which means that she is prohibited from communicating with Congress. Ms. Wynn-Williams believes that people deserve to know the truth.""We're not intending to stand in the way of her exercising her rights," a Meta spokesperson told BI.They added that the company did not operate its services in China. "It is no secret we were once interested in doing so as part of Facebook's effort to connect the world," they said. "This was widely reported beginning a decade ago. We ultimately opted not to go through with the ideas we'd explored, which Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019."The Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and joined by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Republican Sen. John Hawley, opened the probe into Meta's dealings with China on April 1.The committee's letter sent to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday outlines a sweeping request for records dating back to 2014. Lawmakers are seeking all Meta communications with Chinese government officials, including the Cyberspace Administration of China, and records on Meta's subsidiaries and partners in the country, among other details.They also want information about whether Llama, Meta's AI model, was used by the People's Liberation Army or Chinese tech firms. The request also includes all documents related to "Project Aldrin," which Wynn-Williams' book claims, was Meta's three-year plan to break into China, as well as any internal deliberations about censoring content at the request of national governments.Through her attorney Wynn-Williams, who worked at Facebook from 2011 to 2017, has said she wants to cooperate. But an emergency arbitration order Meta secured last month enforces a non-disparagement clause from her severance agreement and prohibits her from talking to Congress. The ruling, issued just one day after Careless People was published, also bars her from promoting the book or publicly criticizing the company.Wynn-Williams' spokesperson said she sought to lift the gag order, but the arbitrator explicitly denied her request. The ruling warned that allowing her to speak to lawmakers could result in them publicly repeating statements she is barred from making. Allowing Wynn-Williams to talk to legislators would create "an exception that would eat the rule" and could enable public officials to amplify any disparaging statements, the arbitrator said."This ruling implies that the gag order on Ms. Wynn-Williams takes precedence over elected officials' right to know information pertaining to national security," her spokesperson said.Meta has dismissed Wynn-Williams' allegations as false and characterized her as a disgruntled former employee. A spokesperson previously told BI that her claims were "a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives."Wynn-Williams, who worked at Facebook from 2011 to 2017, has filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC. Neither the arbitrator's ruling nor Meta's arguments in arbitration dispute the factual content of her memoir, her spokesperson says.Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at or Signal at . Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; .Recommended video