Meta has successfully blocked a former employee from promoting an explosive memoir, though news coverage of the move may serve as more promotion for the book. On Wednesday, an emergency arbitrator barred Sarah Wynn-Williams, former director of global public policy for Facebook, from promoting or distributing Careless People, reports CNBC. Meta pursued arbitration after the book was published last week, arguing that Wynn-Williams had violated a nondisparagement contract she signed with the company, reports the New York Times. The arbitrator prohibited Wynn-Williams from "amplifying any further disparaging, crucial, or otherwise detrimental comments."
A spokeswoman for McMillan, parent company of publisher Flatiron Books, said the ruling doesn't affect the publisher's sales or promotion of the book.
- "We are appalled by Meta's tactics to silence our author through the use of a nondisparagement clause in a severance agreement," the spokeswoman said. "The book went through a thorough editing and vetting process, and we remain committed to publishing important books such as this."
- Wynn-Williams, a former diplomat from New Zealand, worked for Facebook from 2011 to 2018. She worked closely with Mark Zuckerberg, among other top execs, and alleges that the company worked "hand-in-glove" with the Chinese government on ways to censor content, the BBC reports.
- Wynn-Williams is one of the highest-ranking former employees to criticize Meta. She says she believes she was fired in retaliation for reporting sexual harassment by her boss, Joel Kaplan, who is now Meta's chief global affairs officer, NBC News reports.
- The book's full title is Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. It "is darkly funny and genuinely shocking: an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world," Jennifer Szalai writes in a New York Times review. "What Wynn-Williams reveals will undoubtedly trigger her former bosses' ire. Not only does she have the storytelling chops to unspool a gripping narrative; she also delivers the goods."
- In the book, Zuckerberg "turns out to be a giant man-baby suffering from a severe case of the Dunning-Kruger effect, whereby people overestimate their own cognitive abilities," Steven Poole writes at the Guardian. "His colleagues obsequiously let him win at board games. He calls politicians unfriendly to Facebook 'adversaries' and instructs his team to apply pressure to 'pull them over to our side.' He blames his assistants when he forgets his own passport."
Meta says the allegations in the book are exaggerated or completely false, the
Times reports. It contains "a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives," company spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement. He said Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance and "made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment." (More
Meta stories.)
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