Facebook purchased a VPN and turned it into spyware, spied on 33M+ phones, exploited kids and used the data to crush rivals like WhatsApp & Snapchat.
Meanwhile, China
In 2013, Facebook bought Israeli analytics company Onavo for approximately $120M.
The same company owned Onavo Protect, a VPN app that claimed to protect your data.
But Facebook used it as a surveillance weapon.
Onavo gave Facebook full visibility into user behaviour, even outside its own apps.
They tracked:
All App usage frequency
Duration of use
Time of day
Amount of mobile data used
Even encrypted traffic signatures
User retention and uninstall patterns
By 2016, this spyware gave Facebook the edge.
A leaked internal report showed WhatsApp dominating global usage.
Facebook used this intel to justify its $19B acquisition.
No innovation. Just surveillance.
It wasn’t just about WhatsApp.
Snapchat was targeted too.
In 2016, Facebook launched "Project Ghostbusters":
An internal effort to reverse engineer Snapchat's traffic, break encryption and learn who users were talking to.
Emails show that Facebook’s engineers were instructed to “figure out how to read encrypted Snapchat traffic.”
And they did.
With a little trick: they exploited Apple’s Enterprise Developer Certificates to install root-trusted apps for data extraction.
Yes, they created custom root certificates for internal tools that let Facebook decrypt traffic and spy on users.
One internal email even suggested:
"We can probably collect content if we wanted to."
When Onavo was finally booted from the App Store in 2018, Facebook didn’t stop.
They rebranded the spyware as Facebook Research, targeting teens as young as 13, paying them $20/month for root-level access to their phones.
They bypassed Apple again using enterprise certificates, until Apple found out and revoked their access, crippling internal iOS apps at Facebook HQ.
This was not a minor infraction, it was digital espionage disguised as “market research”.
Facebook even used the surveillance data to track the rise of emerging competitors like Houseparty, Meerkat, Periscope, Musical .ly (TikTok) and more.
Every move was driven by raw user data harvested without informed consent.
Let’s summarise all of this:
- Bought a “privacy” app
- Used it to spy on 33M+ users
- Broke Apple rules
- Targeted teens
- Rebranded spyware
- Built Project Ghostbusters to break Snapchat encryption
- Used data to dominate rivals
Still think this is just “social media”?
Now here’s the twist:
China doesn't allow Facebook to operate in the country.
Western media cries: “Censorship! Authoritarianism!”
But when Facebook spies on millions, breaks rules, targets kids, and manipulates the market, that’s just “tech innovation”?
China doesn’t allow foreign Big Tech to freely operate because it understands exactly what they do:
- Mass surveillance
- Market manipulation
- Data extraction
- Cultural & political influence
And the West calls this kind of protection a threat to democracy?
Let’s be honest.
If China did what Facebook did with Onavo and Project Ghostbusters, it would be on every front page in the West.
But when Silicon Valley does it?
It’s quietly swept under the rug.
This is why China maintains digital sovereignty.
Not to suppress freedom, but to protect its citizens from unchecked foreign surveillance capitalism.
And when people are shown the facts, they often get defensive. Why?
Because truth hurts.
Next time someone asks:
“Why isn’t Facebook allowed in China?”
Just show them this thread.
Then ask:
Would you want your entire country’s population spied on by foreign corporations?
I believe the answer to that will be NO!