Memoir of Former Employee Causes Public Relations Headache for Meta

What Happened?

Sarah Wynn-Williams, who worked for Meta from 2011 through 2017, published a memoir about her time with Meta titled Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.

It has risen to the third most popular title on Amazon this week. Meta sued on the grounds that the book violated the non-disparagement agreement Ms. Wynn-Williams signed when leaving the company, and this week a judge ruled in Meta’s favor.

The court ruling states Ms. Wynn-Williams is prohibited from promoting her book until private arbitration is complete. MacMillan, the publisher of the book, issued a statement saying the arbiter’s work has no impact on them and they will continue to promote and sell the book.

Why it Matters

Ms. Wynn-Williams at one point served as Meta’s (then Facebook) director of global public policy. That put her in a position to oversee and have in-depth knowledge of the company’s relationships with governments around the world. 

In her book she painted an unflattering picture of how Meta operated, including this description of how the company made public policy:

“Working on policy at Facebook like 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.” 

She also accused then-Facebook of planning to cooperate with China’s government by enabling the ruling party of China to block whatever content they deemed objectionable, including opinions by their political opposition. 

Meta has responded to Ms. Wynn-Williams with a statement saying her claims are “a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about [Meta] and false accusations about our executives.” 

Meta added that she was fired due to poor performance.

Without corroboration from other eyewitnesses, it’s difficult to assess how many, if any, of Ms. Wynn-Williams claims are valid. At least one former Meta staffer, Mike Rognlien has gone on record by saying her claims are mostly false. 

But the accusations themselves have become a public relations headache for Meta at a time when big tech companies were already facing more scrutiny from governments and the public. 

The legal attempts by Meta to silence Ms. Wynn-Williams have likely contributed to her book’s popularity, which is still holding steady in the top five books on Amazon this week.

How it Affects You

Because so many people rely on social media to communicate and receive information, tech companies like Meta are in a position to control what can or cannot be seen by their respective users. 

That power makes them valuable to many governments around the world, which creates a dynamic where the company wants access to different countries while the governments of those countries see a chance to gain a measure of control over their citizens though platforms like Meta.