Huawei CFO Back in Canada Court in Extradition Case as US Negotiates Resolving Charges

Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou arrives at court in Vancouver | Photo: REUTERS
Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou arrives at court in Vancouver | Photo: REUTERS
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Huawei CFO Back in Canada Court in Extradition Case as US Negotiates Resolving Charges

Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou arrives at court in Vancouver | Photo: REUTERS
Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou arrives at court in Vancouver | Photo: REUTERS

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou will return to a Canadian court on Monday as witness testimony in her US extradition case resumes, amid news last week that her lawyers and US prosecutors held talks to reach a deal that could see her release and to return to China after two years of house arrest.

Meng, 48, was arrested in Canada in December 2018 on a warrant from the United States. She is facing charges of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC Holdings Plc about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break US sanctions.

She has said she is innocent and is fighting the extradition from under house arrest in Vancouver.

US prosecutors are discussing a deal with lawyers for Huawei’s Meng to resolve criminal charges against her, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday, signaling a potential end to a case that has strained ties between the United States, China, and Canada.

Her lawyers have argued in the British Columbia Supreme Court that Meng’s extradition should be thrown out based on alleged abuses of process that took place during her investigation by Canadian border officials and subsequent arrest by police.

They have also claimed the case has been politicized to the point where Meng would not receive a fair trial in the United States, pointing to comments made by President Donald Trump in an interview with Reuters in December 2018 about his willingness to use Meng as a bargaining chip in trade talks with China.

In previous weeks of witnesses’ cross examinations, officials from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) testified in the court that the process leading up to Meng’s investigation and arrest was rushed but by the book.

Prosecutors are arguing that Meng’s extradition is valid and procedures were followed.

Meng’s arrest caused a chill in diplomatic relations between Ottawa and Beijing. Shortly after Meng was detained, China arrested two Canadian men - Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor - who now face spying charges.

On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the release of the two Canadians was his “top priority”, while declining to comment on the talks to release Meng.

Meng’s case is scheduled to wrap up in April 2021.



Meta Abruptly Ends US Fact-checks Ahead of Trump Term

Attendees visit the Meta booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 22, 2023. (AP)
Attendees visit the Meta booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 22, 2023. (AP)
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Meta Abruptly Ends US Fact-checks Ahead of Trump Term

Attendees visit the Meta booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 22, 2023. (AP)
Attendees visit the Meta booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 22, 2023. (AP)

Social media giant Meta on Tuesday slashed its content moderation policies, including ending its US fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram, in a major shift that conforms with the priorities of incoming president Donald Trump.

"We're going to get rid of fact-checkers (that) have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US," Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post.

Instead, Meta platforms including Facebook and Instagram, "would use community notes similar to X (formerly Twitter), starting in the US," he added.

Meta's surprise announcement echoed long-standing complaints made by Trump's Republican Party and X owner Elon Musk about fact-checking that many conservatives see as censorship.

They argue that fact-checking programs disproportionately target right-wing voices, which has led to proposed laws in states like Florida and Texas to limit content moderation.

"This is cool," Musk posted on his X platform after the announcement.

Zuckerberg, in a nod to Trump's victory, said that "recent elections feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech" over moderation.

The shift came as the 40-year-old tycoon has been making efforts to reconcile with Trump since his election in November, including donating one million dollars to his inauguration fund.

Trump has been a harsh critic of Meta and Zuckerberg for years, accusing the company of bias against him.

The Republican was kicked off Facebook following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters, though the company restored his account in early 2023.

Zuckerberg, like several other tech leaders, has met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida ahead of his January 20 inauguration.

Meta in recent days has taken other gestures likely to please Trump's team, such as appointing former Republican official Joel Kaplan to head up public affairs at the company.

He takes over from Nick Clegg, a former British deputy prime minister.

Zuckerberg also named Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) head Dana White, a close ally of Trump, to the Meta board.

Kaplan, in a statement Tuesday, insisted the company's approach to content moderation had "gone too far."

"Too much harmless content gets censored, too many people find themselves wrongly locked up in 'Facebook jail,'" he said.

As part of the overhaul, Meta said it will relocate its trust and safety teams from liberal California to more conservative Texas.

"That will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg also took a shot at the European Union "that has an ever increasing number of laws institutionalizing censorship and making it difficult to build anything innovative there."

The remark referred to new laws in Europe that require Meta and other major platforms to maintain content moderation standards or risk hefty fines.

Zuckerberg said that Meta would "work with President Trump to push back against foreign governments going after American companies to censor more."

Additionally, Meta announced it would reverse its 2021 policy of reducing political content across its platforms.

Instead, the company will adopt a more personalized approach, allowing users greater control over the amount of political content they see on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook's fact-checking program, in which Facebook pays to use fact-checks from around 80 organizations globally on its platform, WhatsApp and on Instagram.

In that program, content rated "false" is downgraded in news feeds so fewer people will see it and if someone tries to share that post, they are presented with an article explaining why it is misleading.

Community Notes on X (formerly Twitter) allows users to collaboratively add context to posts in a system that aims to distill reliable information through consensus rather than top-down moderation.

Meta's move into fact-checking came in the wake of Trump's shock election in 2016, which critics said was enabled by rampant disinformation on Facebook and interference by foreign actors like Russia on the platform.