Grassley Probes Meta on Disclosures Alleging Company Disregarded Child Safety Risks and Retaliated Against Whistleblowers

Grassley Probes Meta on Disclosures Alleging Company Disregarded Child Safety Risks and Retaliated Against Whistleblowers

WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is raising concerns about allegations that Meta has engaged in a longstanding campaign to discredit and malign whistleblowers as "leakers" for raising concerns about child safety and product development.

Whistleblowers Joshua DeFriez and William Sevedge, along with four of their colleagues, provided lawful disclosures to Congress as part of a September 2025 Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing. While two whistleblowers testified publicly, the other four remained anonymous. DeFriez and Sevedge have now decided to become public.

In a letter to Meta, Instagram and Facebook leaders, Grassley outlined the whistleblower retaliation alleged by DeFriez and Sevedge.

"On July 1, 2026, my office received a letter alleging that Meta 'recently terminated two anonymous whistleblowers following their cooperation with Senator Grassley's office and the Senate Judiciary Committee, in furtherance of [the] Committee's oversight mission.' The disclosure notes that each whistleblower 'consistently received exemplary performance evaluations during their time at the Company.' If you disagree, please let me know," Grassley wrote.

Grassley is also asking for a full response to his April 2025 letter questioning Meta's deployment of harmful targeted ads to young and vulnerable users, and is following up on recent allegations from Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams that the company sent a representative to surveil her in Wales during a literary and arts festival appearance.

Full text of the letter can be found HERE and below:

July 22, 2026

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

Mr. Mark Zuckerberg
Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
Meta Platforms, Inc.

Mr. Adam Mosseri
Head of Instagram
Meta Platforms, Inc.

Mr. Tom Alison
Head of Facebook
Meta Platforms, Inc.

Mr. Andrew Bosworth
Chief Technology Officer
Meta Platforms, Inc.

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Mosseri, Mr. Alison, and Mr. Bosworth:

On April 14, 2025, I sent Meta a letter with respect to reported efforts by the company to silence whistleblower Ms. Sarah Wynn-Williams.^[1] My letter requested information regarding the number of requests Meta and its subsidiaries received by employees to disclose information to federal authorities and Congress, as well as information about how many Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations Meta and its subsidiaries have been subject to.^[2] To date, Meta has failed to fully and completely respond to my questions and document requests from that letter.

More recently, according to reporting, Ms. Wynn-Williams filed a lawsuit against Meta in federal court. The suit contains an allegation that Meta sent a representative to Wales to surveil Ms. Wynn-Williams during an appearance at a literary and arts festival, where she was on a panel on digital technology and public policy.^[3] Ms. Wynn-Williams alleges that at the event, she did not speak about the book nor did she publicly speak at all.^[4]

On July 1, 2026, my office received a letter alleging that Meta "recently terminated two anonymous whistleblowers following their cooperation with Senator Grassley's office and the Senate Judiciary Committee, in furtherance of [the] Committee's oversight mission."^[5] The disclosure notes that each whistleblower "consistently received exemplary performance evaluations during their time at the Company."^[6] If you disagree, please let me know.

These two whistleblowers, along with four of their colleagues, provided lawful disclosures to the Committee and Senator Blackburn's office as part of the September 9, 2025, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law hearing entitled, "Hidden Harms: Examining Whistleblower Allegations that Meta Buried Child Safety Research."^[7] Two of these six whistleblowers, Jason Sattizan and Cayce Savage, testified before the subcommittee; however, the other four whistleblowers decided to remain anonymous at that time.^[8] Joshua DeFriez and William Sevedge have now decided to become public through their disclosure of whistleblower retaliation to my office.^[9]

According to Joshua DeFriez and William Sevedge, they disclosed concerns "over the Company's disregard for child safety risks."^[10] Specifically, according to their letter, DeFriez and Sevedge made whistleblower disclosures to Congress "regarding harmful and deceptive practices at Meta with regard [to] the dangers posed to the public by Meta's platforms and products-including its VR headsets, augmented reality glasses, and its 'Metaverse,' as well as its more popular products like Instagram and Facebook."^[11] The letter further states that when the whistleblowers raised concerns to their managers at Meta, "they were met with opposition, censored when raising concerns to fellow employees, and expressly instructed to avoid pursuing research that could subject Meta to liability for failing to adequately [comply] with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)."^[12] The letter also raises concerning issues that Meta has engaged in a "longstanding campaign to discredit and malign whistleblowers as 'leakers'" for reporting misconduct to Congress or enforcement agencies.^[13] The letter specifically cites to an article which highlighted comments from Meta's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Andrew Bosworth, and that Meta created a team to "hunt for insider threats," which reporting attributes to the "heavy scrutiny" Meta received from disclosures by concerned employees to Congress and superiors at the company.^[14] According to the reporting:

"There's a funny thing that's happening with these leaks," Bosworth said during his Q&A earlier this week (a recording of which I obtained). "When things leak, I think a lot of times people think, 'Ah, okay, this is leaked, therefore it'll put pressure on us to change things.' The opposite is more likely."^[15]

As the Co-Chairman of the Senate's Whistleblower Protection Caucus, I am concerned about the allegations my office has received of Meta's alleged continued retaliation of whistleblowers. To provide your organization with an opportunity to respond, and so that Congress may conduct objective and independent oversight, please provide answers to the following no later than August 4, 2026:

1. Provide a full and complete response, including all responsive records, to my April 14, 2025, letter.^[16]
2. Does Meta^[17] have an office policy to retaliate against whistleblowers? If not, how do you explain the recent terminations?
3. Has Meta ever terminated an employee because they disclosed information to Congress? If so, how many, who and when?
4. Are the allegations raised in The Verge reporting accurate? Please address each allegation and its accuracy, or lack thereof. In your answer, specifically address the reported quote from Andrew Bosworth. Provide all records.
5. Are the allegations raised by Mr. DeFriez and Mr. Sevedge accurate?^[18] Please address each allegation and its accuracy, or lack thereof. Provide all records.
6. Are the allegations raised in the Wynn-Williams v. Meta case accurate?^[19] Please address each allegation and its accuracy, or lack thereof. Provide all records.

Thank you for your prompt review and response. If you have any questions, please contact Tucker Akin of Chairman Grassley's Committee staff at (202) 224-5225.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
Senate Committee on the Judiciary

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