Facebook Is Desperately Trying to Keep You From Learning What's in This Book
On Wednesday, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company prevailed in an arbitration case, the outcome of which temporarily prohibits the memoir's author, former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams, from promoting or distributing her book, the New York Times reports.
The memoir, "Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism," released this week, rips into Meta's toxic work culture and provides a behind-the-scenes look at how the company handled some of its worst scandals. Among her cavalcade of damning allegations, Wynn-Williams also reveals the repeated sexual harassment she faced from senior Meta executives.
But the tell-all now faces serious obstacles to finding an audience. During a Wednesday hearing, an arbitrator concluded that Meta had shown enough evidence that Wynn-Williams violated a nondisparagement contract she signed as an employee. Wynn-Williams is prohibited from promoting her work and must retract her comments that were deemed "disparaging," according to the report. The case will now enter private arbitration.
In the meantime, Wynn-Williams' publisher, Flatiron Books — an imprint of Macmillan Books — says it will continue to promote the memoir, as the ruling does not prevent it from continuing publication.
"We are appalled by Meta's tactics to silence our author through the use of a nondisparagement clause in a severance agreement," a Flatiron spokesperson told the NYT. "The book went through a thorough editing and vetting process, and we remain committed to publishing important books such as this."
The NYT described the recent move as "one of Meta's most forceful public repudiations of a former employee's tell-all memoir." The company has a history of whistleblowers, most notably Frances Haugen, who released a trove of internal documents detailing how Facebook pursued "profits over safety." At the time, Facebook executives seemed to threaten Haugen with retaliatory action, but no lawsuit was ever filed.
Wynn-Williams was an employee at Meta for seven years, working her way up to an executive position. She left in 2017 — fired, she alleges — shortly after she reported sexual harassment.
In addition to spotlighting some truly despicable behavior, "Careless People" — the name being an allusion to "The Great Gatsby" — also paints a portrait of the enormous-but-fragile egos of the men running it, including Zuckerberg. Employees, walking on eggshells, allegedly lost games of Settlers of Catan on purpose to let their head honcho win.
In a statement per the NYT, a Meta spokesperson called the book a "mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives," maintaining that Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance.
More on Meta: Instagram Apologizes for Showing Stream of Horrific Real-Life Murders in Users' Feeds
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