Facebook’s former Director of Public Policy Sarah Wynn-Williams published a memoir about her experience working at Facebook (Meta). The book is titled Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism.
The book is officially published on March 11, 2025. On the day of the book’s publication, Meta filed an arbitration demand. Just a day later, the book is ‘banned’—arbitrator temporarily ordered Sarah not to make any “disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments” related to Meta and to stop promoting the book.
Meta didn’t want people to read this book. Now it’s a No. 1 bestseller.
Business Insider. Source Link
Ahead of its March 11 release, Meta filed an emergency motion with an arbitrator. The judge ruled that Wynn-Williams had likely violated her non-disparagement agreement with the company and had to stop promoting or selling the book.
(Yet the book is still on the market…)
The book just debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Bestseller list for nonfiction. It also ranks fifth on Amazon’s bestseller list.
I read the book. The writing is straightforward and feels like the author is speaking to you—exactly like a memoir. It feels real. The secrets are juicy too. But whether it’s biased or not entirely accurate is open to debate. We’ll see.
But what we all know is Meta’s PR really don’t do a good job in this. Even children story knows that it’s not ideal to just ban a book if you don’t want people to read it:
If she [Umbridge] could have done one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in the school will read your interview, it was banning it!
— (Hermione) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
More about it:
Meta Seeks to Block Further Sales of Ex-Employee’s Scathing Memoir. NYTimes.