US Senate committee opens review into Meta's efforts to gain access to China
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Meta's AI Dream Is Glitching--Here's Why Investors Should Pay Attention
Meta (NASDAQ:META) is going all in on AI, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledging to spend hundreds of billions over the next few years. His vision? A personal superintelligence baked into everything from WhatsApp to Ray-Bans. But Meta's flagship productthe standalone Meta AI app launched in Aprilisn't quite delivering. While it boasts 1 billion monthly users thanks to deep integration across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, the experience feels fractured. Conversations don't carry over between apps. The same chatbot responds differently depending on where you use it. And personalization? Still surface-level. Bloomberg testing found Meta AI could guess your zip codebut still serve up generic weekend recs pulled from Eventbrite. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Sign with META. The feedback loop isn't kind either. On Reddit (NYSE:RDDT), a post titled Who hates Meta AI? drew over 72,000 upvotes, with replies calling it unnecessary and slop. The Discover feed, designed to inspire, often shows outdated or bizarre image generations, like a dog in a yellow hat or anime-style selfies. And while Meta says user chats aren't shared publicly unless manually posted, earlier versions of the app reportedly published private conversations without users realizing it. Meanwhile, ChatGPT and Perplexity offer memory across sessions and platforms, letting users pick up where they left offsomething Meta's assistant can't do, even when all accounts are linked. To be fair, Meta's scale gives it a powerful runway. Llama, its open-source language model, is already being built into third-party tools. Meta AI is also integrated into hardware like the Quest headset and Motorola's Razr foldables. And Zuckerberg still sees the U.S. app as the core battlefield for AI dominance. But to win that war, Meta has to fix more than a few bugs. Right now, its AI strategy feels more like a patchwork experiment than a polished product. If this is step one, investors will want to see much sharper execution in the next few. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Boston Globe
26 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Governor Newsom mocks Trump's social media stylings amid redistricting fight: ‘I'm following his example'
Newsom's press office even trolled Trump with what appeared to be an AI-generated Time magazine cover, showing the governor wearing a crown under the words 'LONG LIVE THE KING.' Advertisement A SUCCESSFUL LIBERATION DAY! THANK YOU! — Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) 'I'm following his example,' Newsom Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'To the extent it's gotten some attention, I'm pleased. But I think the deeper question is how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets, Truth Social posts, over the course of the last many years to go without similar scrutiny and notice' the California Democrat added. The satirical posts have come as a dispute over congressional redistricting unfolds between Democratic and Republican-led states. Newsom, a possible contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, urged Trump in a letter on Monday to halt the redistricting fight after the president called on Texas to draw a map favoring Republicans, giving him a 24-hour deadline. Advertisement 'FINAL WARNING DONALD TRUMP — MAYBE THE MOST IMPORTANT WARNING IN HISTORY! STOP CHEATING OR CALIFORNIA WILL REDRAW THE MAPS. AND GUESS WHO WILL ANNOUNCE IT THIS WEEK? GAVIN NEWSOM (MANY SAY THE MOST LOVED & HANDSOME GOVERNOR) AND A VERY POWERFUL TEAM. DON'T MAKE US DO IT!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER,' the governor's press office On Wednesday, the governor said Trump missed his deadline by failing to respond to his letter. 'DONALD 'TACO' TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, 'MISSED' THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE 'BEAUTIFUL MAPS,' THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!), the governor's press office At a news conference Thursday, Newsom said he would Outside the event, 'BORDER PATROL HAS SHOWED UP AT OUR BIG BEAUTIFUL PRESS CONFERENCE! WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!' his press office Alyssa Vega can be reached at
USA Today
26 minutes ago
- USA Today
The AI boom isn't over: 3 must-buy tech stocks for the rest of 2025
These companies have the hot Q2 earnings results that could give their share prices momentum over the second half of this year. Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to drive technology stocks higher, a trend that hasn't let up much since early 2023. But this is not a case of hype with little substance; the top AI stocks are walking the walk, putting up impressive business results that show that the AI boom is not just real, but it's still going strong. These contributors remain fascinated with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), three winners that could continue to outperform for at least the rest of 2025. Here is what you need to know about each stock right now. Meta Platforms is an obvious buy after a standout Q2 performance Justin Pope (Meta Platforms): Just when I thought that Meta Platforms might be running out of steam, the company releases a blowout second-quarter earnings report that should have investors feeling giddy. It is becoming increasingly clear to investors how strong the core business is at Meta Platforms. The company's apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads, continue to add users. Meta's daily active users increased by 6% year over year to a whopping 3.48 billion in Q2 2025. At the same time, ad pricing grew by 9% year over year. As a result, Meta Platforms enjoyed 22% year-over-year revenue growth, and the company's net income surged by 36% versus the same quarter a year ago. This strength continues to show how vital artificial intelligence can be for Meta Platforms. On the one hand, it can utilize AI to automate aspects of its core advertising business and boost efficiency and profitability — Meta's operating margin surged 5 percentage points from a year ago. On the other hand, AI represents a new frontier beyond smartphones, marked by Meta's expansion and investments in smart glasses. Meta recently traded at 27 times 2025 earnings estimates, and analysts expected it to grow by an average of over 16% annually over the next three to five years. However, Wall Street may need to quickly adjust its estimates to account for Meta's building momentum, which speaks volumes about what the company is capable of moving forward. Meta Platforms continues to raise the bar, which makes the stock a table-pounding buy as investors try to figure out just what its ceiling might be in this emerging golden age of AI. Temporary headwinds could be a buying opportunity in this chip manufacturer Will Healy (ASML): One AI stock that could finish strong in 2025 is ASML. It's not a household name, but it plays a critical role in AI. ASML leads the industry in extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), the technology needed to make the world's most advanced chips. However, despite growing demand for AI-driven technology, it has experienced some significant headwinds. In recent months, companies like Intel have delayed or canceled foundry construction projects. ASML's market niche leaves it with only a small number of customers, so delays or lost customers will likely impact its financials significantly. Moreover, China-based Huawei has improved its EUV technology. That poses a possible competitive threat to an industry that ASML has dominated. However, Grand View Research expects the global AI market to reach a size of $1.8 trillion by 2030, amounting to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36% in that time! That will almost certainly increase the demand for AI chips, meaning the market will need more EUV machines from ASML. ASML's recent financial performance reflects that CAGR. It reported net sales of 15.4 billion euros ($17.8 billion) in the first half of 2025, a 34% yearly increase. The company also kept expense growth in check — net income of over 4.6 billion euros ($5.4 billion) surged 66% higher over the same period. Still, analysts expect slowdowns to soon affect ASML's financials. Revenue projections for Q3 call for net sales between 7.4 billion and 7.9 billion euros, which would amount to just a 2% increase at the midpoint. Analysts projections confirm a slowdown is coming with 2025 revenue expected to slow to 14%. That deceleration has weighed on results, and the stock is down by nearly 20% over the last year. Nonetheless, investors may be overlooking ASML's 26 earnings multiple, an unusually low level since its five-year average P/E ratio is 42. As more investors notice the discounted valuation and take its long-term growth prospects into account, it could attract bargain hunters, setting the stock up for a comeback. Alphabet's cloud services business is on fire Jake Lerch (Alphabet): My choice is Alphabet. When Alphabet reported its second-quarter earnings results (for the three months ending on June 30, 2025) a couple of weeks ago, two items stood out to me. The theory is that Google Search usage will drop off as more people turn to ChatGPT and other AI-powered chatbots for answers. In turn, Google's ad rates will drop, and Alphabet's revenue growth will suffer. It could happen — but it isn't happening yet. In fact, ad revenue increased by about 10%. In other words, Google Search is doing just fine. Second, Alphabet reported that its cloud services business is red-hot. Google Cloud — the third-largest cloud services provider behind Amazon and Microsoft — reported revenue growth of 32%. Crucially, Alphabet's management chalked up the excellent performance to the AI boom. Ironically, one of the customers that has recently signed up to use Google Cloud is none other than OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. So, with its ad business performing decently and its cloud business performing nicely, all is well with Alphabet. And the company has other irons in the fire. Its Waymo subsidiary is one of the first companies bringing autonomous vehicles to the public, and its Quantum AI lab remains hard at work trying to revolutionize the very nature of computing. Alphabet's near-term and long-term prospects continue to look bright. Investors looking for an AI stock that could perform well in 2025 and beyond should consider it now. Jake Lerch has positions in Alphabet and Amazon. Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Will Healy has positions in Intel. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML, Alphabet, Amazon, Intel, Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel, and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY. Should you invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms right now? Offer from the Motley Fool: Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $624,823!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,064,820!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,019% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 178% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks »
