Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is attempting to silence a former employee who has made explosive allegations in a new memoir. The company obtained a temporary ruling preventing her from promoting the book or making disparaging remarks about the tech giant.
In her tell-all memoir, Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, released on Tuesday, Sarah Wynn-Williams recounts her time working at Meta from 2011 to 2017. The book includes claims of sexual harassment by long-time company executive Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican ally of President Donald Trump, and accusations of Meta’s attempts to navigate the Chinese market by appeasing government censors.
Wynn-Williams alleges that Meta considered compromising user data from Hong Kong to gain access to the lucrative Chinese market. The company, she said, even explored the possibility of flagging viral content in Hong Kong and Taiwan for censorship review.
Meta, however, took legal action, claiming that the book violates a non-disparagement clause Wynn-Williams signed while working with the company. An arbitration court ruled this week to temporarily bar Wynn-Williams from promoting the book and making negative comments about Meta, and also ordered her to retract previous criticisms.
Meta’s communications director, Andy Stone, responded to the ruling, stating that Wynn-Williams’ book is “false and defamatory” and should not have been published. He reiterated that Meta never began offering services in China, despite exploring potential opportunities.
Stone also claimed Wynn-Williams was terminated for poor performance and “toxic behavior” and denied the allegations in her book. The ruling, issued by the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, does not prevent Macmillan Publishers from distributing the memoir. Macmillan expressed its dismay at Meta’s attempt to suppress the book and pledged to continue supporting it.
Wynn-Williams did not appear at the arbitration hearing, and the ruling did not address the merits of the case. Meta has recently faced criticism for its stance on workplace diversity and its handling of misinformation, with some observers noting a shift in its policies in alignment with conservative figures like Trump.
