Facebook whistleblower barred from promoting new tell-all book

Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former director of global public policy, released a tell-all book about her "seven critical years" at Facebook/Meta, but an arbitrator has temporarily blocked her from promoting or further publishing the book. 

Wynn-Williams’ "Careless People" memoir was released Tuesday, days after Meta filed an emergency motion to stop the book from being published. Wynn-Williams reportedly did not appear at the emergency telephone hearing, but she did appear on a podcast and said Meta was trying to "shut this book down."

Why did Meta try to stop "Careless People" from being released?

What they're saying:

Meta’s Communications Director Andy Stone called the book "false and defamatory" in a post on Threads, another social media app owned by Meta. Stone said the company had to take legal action because "Williams, who more than eight years after being terminated by the company, deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to shelves after waiting for eight years."

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In the emergency ruling, the arbitrator who heard Meta’s complaint said he is likely to side with Meta based "on the merits of its contractual non-disparagement claim against Respondent Wynn-Williams, and that immediate and irreparable loss will result in the absence of emergency relief."

What is "Careless People" about? 

What they're saying:

"'Careless People' takes readers inside Meta’s board rooms, private jets, and meetings with heads of state, revealing the appetites, excesses, blind spots, and priorities of executives Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Joel Kaplan," the publisher's announcement reads in part. "Wynn-Williams paints a portrait of this group as profoundly flawed, self-interested, and careless human beings, callously indifferent to the price others would pay for their own enrichment."

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According to Flatiron Books, which published "Careless People," Wynn-Williams describes in detail Zuckerberg's efforts to allow Meta in China and her own efforts to get the company to monitor hate speech and misinformation on social media. Promoters said she added everything from "shocking accounts of workplace harassment and misogyny to the grueling demands and humiliations of working motherhood during the same time that Sheryl Sandberg was winning international acclaim for urging women to ‘Lean In.’"

App icons seen on a phone screen (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

"Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade," the book overview says. "Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us."

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"In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite," the overview continues.

It’s listed on Amazon as a "#1 Best-Seller in Scientist Biographies."

The other side:

LiveNow from FOX reached out to Meta for comment a week before the book was published. Meta asked when LiveNow from FOX planned to publish the article, but did not comment further. 

Who is Sarah Wynn-Williams?

The backstory:

Wynn-Williams is an international lawyer and former New Zealand diplomat who joined Facebook after pitching a job, according to the book overview. She eventually became director of global public policy for the social media giant. Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook from 2011-2018. 

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She served as a policy adviser for the New Zealand government from 2002-2007, also serving as chief negotiator of biosafety liability for the United Nations. She worked on international security, international law and human rights issues at the UN General Assembly.