- Meta wins temporary legal ruling against former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams over her memoir "Careless People".
- Despite the legal challenge, the book has reached #3 on Amazon's bestseller list, and publisher Macmillan continues to support it.
- Wynn-Williams' memoir details controversial Facebook policies regarding China and alleges inappropriate behavior by executives.
Meta has won a preliminary legal victory against former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams over her recently published memoir "Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism," which provides a critical insider account of her tenure at the company.
An arbitrator ruled that Meta presented a valid argument that Wynn-Williams, who worked at Facebook (now Meta) from 2011 to 2017, may have violated the non-disparagement agreement she signed upon leaving the company.
The ruling temporarily prohibits Wynn-Williams from promoting her book or "from further publishing or distributing" it until private arbitration concludes.
Despite the ruling, "Careless People" remains available for purchase and appears to be benefiting from the "Streisand Effect," with the book reaching the number three position on Amazon's bestseller list as of Sunday.
Macmillan, which published the memoir through its Flatiron Books imprint, stated the arbitrator's decision "has no impact" on the publisher and that it will "absolutely continue to support and promote" the book.
The publisher criticized Meta's "tactics to silence [its] author through the use of a non-disparagement clause."
The memoir offers what The New York Times called a "darkly funny and genuinely shocking" look inside Facebook, particularly regarding its relationships with governments including China.
Wynn-Williams, who served as director of global public policy, wrote that working at Facebook "started as a hopeful comedy and ended in darkness and regret."
Wynn-Williams reportedly filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC alleging that Facebook created a plan in 2015 to install a "chief editor" who could censor content in China on behalf of the ruling party.
Meta dismissed the book as "a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims" and "false accusations about our executives," describing Wynn-Williams as "an employee terminated eight years ago for poor performance."
The company added that while it once explored operating in China, it ultimately decided against it.
The memoir also details alleged uncomfortable encounters with Joel Kaplan, Meta's vice president of global public policy, which Meta claims were investigated and found to be "misleading and unfounded."
Edited By Annette George
