Banned Meta expose by Sarah Wynn-Williams hits NY Times bestseller list

Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US. Photo / Getty Images

• Sarah Wynn-Williams' book about Meta topped the New York Times bestseller list after its release.
• The book alleges sexual harassment by Meta executive Joel Kaplan and discusses Meta’s China market ambitions.
• Meta barred Wynn-Williams from promoting the book, citing a non-disparagement contract and arbitration ruling.

A scathing book about Facebook parent company Meta, whose Kiwi author has been barred from promoting her work, entered at the top of the New York Times bestseller list after its first week of release in the United States.

The book also ranks fourth on Amazon’s bestseller list.

In Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism, which was released on March 11, Sarah Wynn-Williams recounts working at the tech titan from 2011 to 2017.

Wynn-Williams’ book includes claims of sexual harassment by longtime company executive Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican and ally of President Donald Trump who took over as head of Meta’s global affairs team this year.

'Careless People' by Sarah Wynn-Williams has topped the NYT bestseller list.

She also wrote of Meta, then known as Facebook, exploring the possibility of breaking into the lucrative Chinese market by appeasing government censors there.

Meta quickly took the matter to arbitration, contending the book violates a non-disparagement contract signed by Wynn-Williams when she worked with the company’s global affairs team.

An arbitration court granted Meta’s request to bar Wynn-Williams from promoting the book or making derogatory statements about the company.

She also must retract previous critical comments about Meta or its executives, according to the ruling, which remains in place until the dispute is settled in the private arbitration process.

“This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn-Williams' false and defamatory book should never have been published,” Meta communications director Andy Stone said at the time in a post on X.

Stone said Wynn-Williams was “fired for poor performance and toxic behaviour”, having made a series of unfounded allegations that the company investigated.

Another book that is highly critical of Meta, The Anxious Generation, which paints a dark picture of social media’s effect on children, is currently fourth on the Times bestseller list a year after its release.

– Agence France-Presse