Meta Wins Legal Victory Against Former Employee Over Memoir

This week, Meta emerged victorious in a legal dispute against Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former employee who recently released a memoir titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism” about her time at the company.

An arbitrator ruled that Meta has a valid argument that Wynn-Williams may have breached her non-disparagement agreement when she left the company. As a result, Wynn-Williams is temporarily prohibited from promoting or distributing her book until private arbitration is concluded.

The Memoir Remains Available for Purchase

Despite the ruling, “Careless People” remains available for purchase and may even be benefiting from the “Streisand Effect,” where attempts to suppress information only serve to further publicize it. As of Sunday afternoon, the book was the number three bestselling book on Amazon.

Macmillan, the publisher of “Careless People,” released a statement saying that the arbitrator’s decision “has no impact” on the publisher and that it will “absolutely continue to support and promote” the book.

The publisher expressed its disapproval of Meta’s tactics to silence the author, stating that it is “appalled by Meta’s tactics to silence [its] author through the use of a non-disparagement clause in a severance agreement.”

Macmillan clarified that the arbitrator’s order does not reference the claims made in “Careless People” and that the book underwent a thorough editing and vetting process before publication.

A Look Inside Facebook

In “Careless People,” Wynn-Williams offers a “darkly funny and genuinely shocking” look inside Facebook, particularly its relationship with China and other governments. As the director of global public policy, Wynn-Williams had a unique perspective on the company’s operations.

Wynn-Williams described her experience at Facebook as starting as a “hopeful comedy” but ending in “darkness and regret.” She also compared working on policy at Facebook to watching “a bunch of fourteen-year-olds who’ve been given superpowers and an ungodly amount of money, as they jet around the world to figure out what power has bought and brought them.”

Wynn-Williams reportedly filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that Facebook created a plan to install a “chief editor” who would have been able to censor certain content or shut down the site in China on behalf of the country’s ruling party.

Meta’s Response

In a statement, a Meta spokesperson described “Careless People” as “a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about [Meta] and false accusations about our executives.” The spokesperson also characterized Wynn-Williams as “an employee terminated eight years ago for poor performance.”

Meta stated that it does not operate its services in China today and that it had explored the idea of doing so in the past but ultimately decided not to pursue it. Mark Zuckerberg announced this decision in 2019.

The book also recounts uncomfortable encounters between Joel Kaplan, Meta’s vice president of global public policy, and Wynn-Williams, who claims that Kaplan ground himself against her at a work event, described her as “sultry,” and made “weird comments” about her husband.

Meta investigated Wynn-Williams’ allegations of harassment and found them “misleading and unfounded.”

When asked if the company is trying to silence a whistleblower’s criticism, the spokesperson said, “Whistleblower status protects communications to the government, not disgruntled activists trying to sell books.”

Criticisms from Current and Former Employees

Current and former Facebook employees have criticized Wynn-Williams’ memoir, with some calling it “full of lies.” Mike Rognlien, a former employee, claimed that he sat next to Wynn-Williams for 18 months and stated that the book “has so many lies in it I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Wynn-Williams discussed Meta’s pushback in an interview with Business Insider, characterizing criticisms from the company and former coworkers as distractions. She expressed her desire for the focus to be on the questions raised by her book rather than on distractions.