How ‘Careless People’ is turning into an even bigger downside for Meta

Meta has aggressively pushed to discredit and silence Sarah Wynn-Williams, the writer of Careless People, her memoir about working on the firm as a coverage director. Now, she’s combating again.

Attorneys for Wynn-Williams this week filed an emergency movement searching for to dismiss the gag order that Meta received by way of an arbitrator. A duplicate of her movement, which I’ve seen, argues that the nondisparagement settlement she signed when she left the corporate isn’t enforceable, whereas Meta has used it because the authorized foundation for banning her from speaking concerning the e book.

Naturally, the Streisand impact is on full show. Careless People debuted on the high of The New York Times Best Seller listing. It’s now additionally of curiosity to a number of governments.

“Members of the United States Congress, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and the Parliament of the European Union have requested to talk with Ms. Wynn-Williams on the problems of public concern raised in her memoir,” her movement to carry the gag order reads. “These embody Meta’s coordination with the Chinese Communist Party, its exploitation of emotionally susceptible teenage women, and its conduct on this very arbitration.”

Facebook’s decade-old effort to function in China was closely reported on on the time. Remember when Mark Zuckerberg was studying to talk Mandarin and jogging by way of Tiananmen Square? Whatever the rationale for Wynn-Williams resurfacing the saga now, her timing is definitely apt.

Zuckerberg is within the strategy of reorienting his firm to be politically aligned with the Trump administration and making common visits to the White House to debate “American expertise management.” If I needed to throw a wrench in these conversations, particularly when DeepSeek has reframed the talk about how the US ought to method the AI arms race with China, I’d resurface that Zuckerberg was prepared to censor on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. (In what I’m certain is one other coincidence of timing, Meta will likely be defending itself in opposition to the US authorities wanting to interrupt it up subsequent month.)

If I needed to guess, we’ll be listening to extra from Wynn-Williams now that lawmakers have taken an curiosity in her story. Even although she has been barred from selling her e book, members of Congress might subpoena her, which might give authorized cowl to let her communicate freely once more. Meta spokesman Andy Stone tells me that the corporate “has no intention of interfering with anybody’s rights beneath the legislation.”

There are parallels to Wynn-Williams and Frances Haugen, Meta’s final well-known, ex-employee agitator. Both ladies filed SEC whistleblower complaints (which can lead to financial awards) earlier than taking their tales to the media. And each positioned themselves as sober-minded, skeptical outsiders who unsuccessfully tried to make constructive change from inside.

Unlike Haugen, nonetheless, Wynn-Williams doesn’t present receipts. Most of the criticism of Careless People from Meta insiders focuses on particulars within the e book they declare have been distorted or utterly fabricated.

“While her e book accommodates kernels of reality, it’s riddled with factual inaccuracies, exaggerations, and omissions, together with issues she writes about myself and my group’s work on elections (although we’re by no means straight named.),” writes Katie Harbath, an early Facebook coverage chief who has her personal e book coming quickly. “And when the info are fallacious, the broader dialog about Facebook’s position on this planet will get misplaced.”

Others have chimed in to refute Wynn-Williams’ retelling of occasions. Dex Hunter-Torricke, Facebook’s former head of government communications, contests how she describes a recreation of Settlers of Catan with Mark Zuckerberg throughout a piece journey in Indonesia. And Facebook’s former CMO, Gary Briggs, says that Wynn-Williams made up particulars a few karaoke session he was current for on Zuckerberg’s personal jet.

Most of the pushback from ex-colleagues focuses on the best way Wynn-Williams writes about ex-COO Sheryl Sandberg and coverage chief Joel Kaplan. She alleges that each made inappropriate feedback to her and that Kaplan went as far as to grind on her whereas dancing. (Meta says Kaplan was cleared in an inside investigation earlier than Wynn-Williams was fired.)

Careless People is at its finest when it focuses on Wynn-Williams’ inside monologue and expertise of discovering the quirks of working in Silicon Valley. However, her repeated shock that the corporate makes selections within the curiosity of its enterprise over all the things else begins to really feel previous after some time. We’ve seen this story earlier than, and we all know the way it ends.

I used to be stunned to see that Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, who has traditionally shied away from brazenly criticizing the corporate that made him a billionaire, endorses the e book. Brooke Oberwetter, a former Facebook coverage supervisor whose time on the firm overlapped with the interval Wynn-Williams writes about, additionally recommends it.

“I can’t reality test the entire e book (and neither can anybody else), however I can say that the conferences and occasions I used to be part of which are recounted within the e book (and issues that have been relayed to me by others contemporaneously) are precisely represented,” she writes on LinkedIn. “Maybe extra importantly, the vibe she captured is spot on. It was simply all so juvenile.”

Ultimately, Careless People is a check for the way you’re feeling about Meta. For many, it solely reaffirms the idea that the corporate’s leaders are ruthless, immoral capitalists. For others, it’s a success job that bends actuality to implement a well-recognized narrative. I want it challenged each side.

Some noteworthy job modifications within the tech world:

If you haven’t already, don’t neglect to subscribe to The Verge, which incorporates limitless entry to Command Line and all of our reporting.

As all the time, I need to hear from you, particularly in case you have suggestions on this situation or a narrative tip. Respond right here or ping me securely on Signal.