Meta Wins Initial Victory in Bid to Halt Tell-All Memoir

Meta has achieved an early victory in its attempts to stop a surprise tell-all memoir from a former policy executive. An arbitrator has ruled in favor of the social media company, stating that the book’s author should cease selling and publicizing the book, which was released earlier this week.

The Book’s Content and Controversy

The drama surrounds Careless People, a new book by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook policy official who Meta claims was fired in 2017. Described by its publisher as an "explosive insider account," Wynn-Williams reveals new details about Mark Zuckerberg’s push to bring Facebook to China over a decade ago. She also alleges that Meta’s current policy chief, Joel Kaplan, acted inappropriately and reveals embarrassing details about Zuckerberg’s awkward encounters with world leaders.

Meta’s Response and Arbitrator’s Ruling

The book was only announced last week, and Meta has launched a forceful PR campaign against it, calling it a "new book of old news." Numerous former employees have publicly disputed Wynn-Williams’ account of events that transpired while she worked at Facebook. Meta filed an emergency motion with an arbitrator, arguing that Wynn-Williams had violated a non-disparagement agreement with the company. The arbitrator ruled that she should immediately stop making disparaging comments about Meta and cease "further publishing or distributing" the book. The implications of this ruling for the book, which is already on sale, are unclear.

Aftermath and Reactions

The publisher, Flatiron Books, which was also named in Meta’s complaint, has not responded to requests for comment. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone stated, "This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published. This urgent legal action was made necessary by 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." The situation remains uncertain, with the future of the book hanging in the balance.