Careless People

{{Main|Sarah Wynn-Williams}}

Sarah Wynn-Williams is a former Facebook executive who worked in global policy and government relations. A New Zealand-born lawyer and diplomat, she worked at the company from 2011 until she was terminated in 2017.{{Cite web |date=April 9, 2025 |title=Former Facebook executive tells Senate committee company undermined US national security with China |url=https://apnews.com/article/meta-china-senate-security-00391fd267b8c70c23b22906dc39b503 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |website=AP News |language=en}}

Prior to publication, Wynn-Williams lodged a 78{{nbhyph}}page complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission{{nbsp}}(SEC), where she accused the company of misleading investors. Wynn-Williams also briefed The Washington Post, recorded an interview with journalist Emily Maitlis, and appeared on a podcast with Steve Bannon.

File:Sarah Wynn-Williams in 2014 (cropped).jpg

In Careless People, Wynn-Williams provides an account of her time at the company, discussing its approach to corporate ethics, public policy, and business strategy.{{Cite web |date=March 13, 2025 |title=Meta stops former Facebook director from promoting critical memoir |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5zyq0250wo |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250317014210/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5zyq0250wo |archive-date=March 17, 2025 |access-date=March 17, 2025 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |date=March 10, 2025 |title=Ex-Facebook employee alleges sexual harassment and human rights failures in new memoir |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-alleges-harassment-sandberg-kaplan-sarah-wynn-williams-rcna195130 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250318032855/https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-alleges-harassment-sandberg-kaplan-sarah-wynn-williams-rcna195130 |archive-date=March 18, 2025 |access-date=March 17, 2025 |website=NBC News |language=en}}

The book and the SEC filing document attempts by Mark Zuckerberg to gain dominance in China. Wynn-Williams alleged that Facebook developed a system of censorship to appease the Chinese government as it sought to enter the Chinese market, which would have subjected users in Hong Kong to censorship. A Facebook privacy staffer in 2014 proposed that "In exchange for the ability to establish operations in China, FB will agree to grant the Chinese government access to Chinese users’ data — including Hongkongese users’ data".{{Cite web |last=Nix |first=Naomi |date=March 9, 2025 |title=Zuckerberg’s Meta considered sharing user data with China, whistleblower alleges |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/03/09/meta-china-censorship-facebook-mark-zuckerberg/ |access-date=April 23, 2025 |website=Washington POst}}

Although Facebook developed these technologies, it eventually decided not to implement them. Academic John Naughton writes that Facebook's efforts included:

{{blockquote | 1 = developing a censorship system for China in 2015 that would allow a "chief editor" to decide what content to remove, and the ability to shut down the entire site during "social unrest"; assembling a "China team" in 2014 for a project to develop China-compliant versions of Meta's services; considering the weakening of privacy protections for Hong Kong users; building a specialised censorship system for China with automatic detection of restricted terms; and restricting the account of Guo Wengui, a Chinese government critic, after a Chinese internet regulator suggested it would improve cooperation.}}

Wynn-Williams accuses Zuckerberg of lying to the US Congress about the extent of efforts by Facebook to curry favor with the Chinese government. Wynn-Williams suggests that Facebook was developing technologies and tools to allow the Chinese government to censor users and gain access to their data.

The military junta in Myanmar was facilitated by Facebook to post hate speech that sought to foment sexual violence and promote genocide against the Rohingya. "Myanmar would have been a better place if Facebook had not arrived" Wynn-Williams writes.{{Cite web |title=Why Facebook is losing the war on hate speech in Myanmar |website=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate/ |access-date=March 17, 2025 |archive-date=November 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107224054/https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/myanmar-facebook-hate/ |url-status=live }}

Wynn-Williams argued that Facebook failed to moderate hate speech against the Rohingya in Myanmar, including the use of the racial slur kalar. She noted that the company only had two Burmese language moderators, both based in Dublin, for the entire country, and claimed that one of the two moderators gave a pass to hate speech while removing pro-human rights content. She further claimed that she raised concerns that the moderator was "in cahoots with the" junta, only to have her concerns dismissed by the content team. Additionally, she claimed that her efforts to have Facebook's Community Standards rules translated into the Burmese language were resisted by the company communications team, who stated that the country "Myanmar isn’t a priority country" in the region.{{Cite web |last=Spencer |first=Oliver |date=March 28, 2025 |title=Facebook’s ‘lethal carelessness’ in Myanmar |url=https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/facebooks-lethal-carelessness-in-myanmar/ |access-date=April 24, 2025 |website=Frontier Myanmar |language=en-US}}

Wynn-Williams claims Meta identified teenage girls who had deleted selfies on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp and forwarded their data to companies who used the data to target the girls with beauty products.

The book details allegations of unaddressed sexual harassment in the workplace by senior Facebook executives, including Sheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan, Sandberg reportedly told Wynn-Williams on one occasion: "You should have got into the bed".{{cite magazine |last1=Klee |first1=Miles |title=11 WTF Moments from the Facebook Memoir Mark Zuckerberg Doesn't Want You to Read |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/careless-people-facebook-memoir-1235299645/ |access-date=March 22, 2025 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=March 21, 2025}}

In late March 2025, Careless People was number one on the New York Times best-seller list and was selling well in the United Kingdom, despite legal attempts by Meta to prevent its distribution.

Careless People received coverage from The New York Times, Financial Times, and The Guardian. Some reviews described the book as a detailed insider's account of Big Tech's influence, while others stated that it contained little new information.{{Cite news |date=March 12, 2025 |title=Careless People — the jaw-dropping account of Sarah Wynn-Williams' time at Facebook |url=https://www.ft.com/content/51d5ed0b-fff4-4c54-bd74-db570bae2fed |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=Financial Times}}

Writing for The New York Times, Jennifer Szalai called the book "darkly funny and genuinely shocking: an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world".{{cite news |date=March 10, 2025 |title=A Facebook Insider's Exposé Alleges Bad Behavior at the Top |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/books/review/careless-people-sarah-wynn-williams.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20250313223453/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/books/review/careless-people-sarah-wynn-williams.html |archive-date=March 13, 2025 |access-date=March 22, 2025 |work=New York Times |language=en}} In a separate opinion piece in The New York Times, Michelle Goldberg stated that "Hopefully, Meta’s ham-handed attempt at censorship will lead more people to read Wynn-Williams’s book", and argued that the company's reaction undermined Zuckerberg's professed support for free speech.{{Cite news |last=Goldberg |first=Michelle |date=March 17, 2025 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Tell-All Book That Meta Doesn’t Want You to Read |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/opinion/facebook-meta-careless-people.html |access-date=April 22, 2025 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Jason Koebler, a reporter who has covered Meta, wrote in 404 Media that it was 'the book about Facebook I've wanted for a decade'.{{Cite web |last=Koebler |first=Jason |date=April 7, 2025 |title='Careless People' Is the Book About Facebook I've Wanted for a Decade |url=https://www.404media.co/careless-people-is-the-book-about-facebook-ive-wanted-for-a-decade/ |access-date=April 22, 2025 |website=404 Media |language=en}} Journalist Katie Notopoulos stated in a Business Insider piece that "The most damning moments in the book had already been reported in the news".{{cite news |last1=Notopoulos |first1=Katie |date=March 20, 2025 |title=Meta didn't want people to read this book. Now it's a No. 1 bestseller. |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-employee-book-careless-people-sarah-wynn-williams-bestseller-2025-3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250320182756/https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-employee-book-careless-people-sarah-wynn-williams-bestseller-2025-3 |archive-date=March 20, 2025 |access-date=March 22, 2025 |work=Business Insider}}

Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, Meta's former head of public policy in Bangladesh, praised aspects of the book in her review in Rest of World, but argued that Wynn-Williams did not acknowledge her own complicity for Facebook's behavior during her period there. In her review, Diya called the book "a courageous feat, but it glosses over [Wynn-Williams's] own indifference to warnings from policymakers, civil society, and internal teams outside the U.S. about serious harm to communities from Facebook."{{Cite web |last=Diya |first=Sabhanaz Rashid |date=March 26, 2025 |title=A former Meta employee reviews the new Facebook memoir |url=https://restofworld.org/2025/careless-people-book-review-facebook-global-policy/ |access-date=April 15, 2025 |website=Rest of World |language=en-US}}

Meta describes the book as "a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about [its] executives".

Mark Zuckerberg responded legally through private arbitration. The American Arbitration Association{{'}}s emergency arbitrator, Nicholas Gowen,{{cite news |title=Meta wins halt to promotion of 'Careless People' tell-all book by former employee |url=https://www.reuters.com/legal/meta-wins-halt-promotion-careless-people-tell-all-book-by-former-employee-2025-03-13/ |access-date=March 22, 2025 |work=Reuters |date=March 13, 2025 |archive-date=March 24, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250324183227/https://www.reuters.com/legal/meta-wins-halt-promotion-careless-people-tell-all-book-by-former-employee-2025-03-13/ |url-status=live }} required Wynn-Williams to not make "orally, in writing, or otherwise any disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments to any person or entity concerning [Meta], its officers, directors, or employees". Macmillan, the UK publisher, later issued a statement saying that it would ignore the ruling. Gowen stated that without emergency relief, Meta would suffer "immediate and irreparable loss". Nicholas Gowen did not order any action by the publisher.{{cite news |last1=Babu |first1=Juby |title='Careless People': Meta wins arbitration to halt promotion of tell-all book by ex-employee |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2025/03/13/meta-blocks-book-former-employee/82370148007/ |access-date=March 22, 2025 |work=USA TODAY}}{{cite news |last1=Pahwa |first1=Nitish |title=We Read the Book That Mark Zuckerberg Doesn't Want You to Read. We Can See Why. |url=https://slate.com/technology/2025/03/careless-people-sarah-wynn-williams-book-review-facebook-mark-zuckerberg.html |access-date=March 22, 2025 |work=Slate |date=March 19, 2025}} Hours before an arbitrator barred Wynn-Williams from promoting her book, she was interviewed by Business Insider.{{cite news |last1=Dixit |first1=Pranav |title=Meta is trying to silence a former executive. In an interview, she tells BI why. |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/former-meta-executive-sarah-wynn-williams-interview-careless-people-book-2025-3 |access-date=March 22, 2025 |work=Business Insider |archive-date=March 23, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250323090102/https://www.businessinsider.com/former-meta-executive-sarah-wynn-williams-interview-careless-people-book-2025-3 |url-status=live }}

On April 9, 2025, Wynn-Williams testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the hearing "A Time for Truth: Oversight of Meta’s Foreign Relations and Representations to the United States Congress".{{Cite web |date=April 9, 2025 |title=A Time for Truth: Oversight of Meta’s Foreign Relations and Representations to the United States Congress {{!}} United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary |url=https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/a-time-for-truth-oversight-of-metas-foreign-relations-and-representations-to-the-united-states-congress |access-date=April 22, 2025 |website=Senate Judiciary Committee |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Lima-Strong |first=Cristiano |date=April 10, 2025 |title=Transcript: Former Exec Sarah Wynn-Williams Testifies on Facebook’s Courtship of China {{!}} TechPolicy.Press |url=https://www.techpolicy.press/transcript-former-exec-sarah-wynnwilliams-testifies-on-facebooks-courtship-of-china/ |access-date=April 22, 2025 |website=Tech Policy Press |language=en}} During her testimony, Wynn-Williams claimed that Facebook leadership worked "hand in glove" with the Chinese government to censor content on its platforms.{{Cite web |last=Garrison |first=Laura |date=April 10, 2025 |title=Meta whistleblower tells senators Facebook worked "hand in glove" with Chinese government to censor posts – CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-whistleblower-testimony-senate-judiciary-subcommittee/ |access-date=April 22, 2025 |website=CBS News |language=en-US}}

In April 2025, the United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations cited the book in a probe into Meta Platforms over its attempt to enter the People's Republic of China in 2014 in what was internally called "Project Aldrin".{{Cite news |last=Shepardson |first=David |date=April 1, 2025 |title=US Senate committee opens review into Meta efforts to gain Chinese market access |url=https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-senate-committee-reviews-meta-efforts-gain-access-chinese-market-2025-04-01/ |access-date=April 1, 2025 |work=Reuters}}{{Cite web |last=Lu |first=Alan |date=April 11, 2025 |title=Facebook’s Zuckerberg oversaw censorship tool for China: whistleblower |url=https://www.rfa.org/english/china/2025/04/11/china-meta/ |access-date=April 13, 2025 |website=Radio Free Asia |language=en}}

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican who serves as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to Zuckerberg over allegations that the company worked to silence Wynn-Williams.{{Cite web |last=Fields |first=Ashleigh |date=April 15, 2025 |title=Grassley presses Zuckerberg over Meta’s treatment of whistleblower |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5250346-grassley-presses-zuckerberg-over-metas-treatment-of-whistleblower/ |access-date=April 21, 2025 |website=The Hill}}

• Criticism of Facebook
• Frances Haugen {{endash}} another Facebook whistleblower
• Lean In {{endash}} a motivational book from Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg published in 2013
• Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture
• Microserfs {{endash}} a novel from 1995 anticipating similar tech developments

{{notelist}}

{{reflist | 2 | refs =

{{cite book

| last1 = Wynn-Williams | first1 = Sarah

| title = Careless people: a cautionary tale of power, greed, and lost idealism

| date = March 11, 2025

| publisher = Macmillan

| location = London, United Kingdom

| isbn = 978-125039123-0

}} Published under the Flatiron Books imprint.

{{cite news

| last1 = Isaac | first1 = Mike

| title = Meta seeks to block further sales of ex-employee's scathing memoir

| language = en-US

| date = March 13, 2025

| work = The New York Times

| location = New York, USA

| issn = 0362-4331

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/technology/meta-book-sales-blocked.html

| access-date = March 16, 2025

}}

{{cite news

| last1 = Naughton | first1 = John

| title = Whistleblower's exposé of the cult of Zuckerberg reveals peril of power-crazy tech bros

| date = March 15, 2025

| work = The Guardian

| location = London, United Kingdom

| issn = 0029-7712

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/15/whistleblowers-cult-zuckerberg-power-tech-bros

| access-date = March 15, 2025

}}

{{cite news

| last1 = Jeffries | first1 = Stuart

| title = Careless people: a story of where I used to work by Sarah Wynn-Williams review – a former disciple unfriends Facebook

| date = March 16, 2025

| work = The Guardian

| location = London, United Kingdom

| issn = 0261-3077

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/16/careless-people-a-story-of-where-i-used-to-work-by-sarah-wynn-williams-review-a-former-disciple-unfriends-facebook

| access-date = March 16, 2025

}}

{{cite news

| last1 = Creamer | first1 = Ella

| title = Meta exposé tops bestseller chart despite company's attempt to ban its promotion

| date = March 20, 2025

| work = The Guardian

| location = London, United Kingdom

| issn = 0261-3077

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/20/meta-expose-tops-bestseller-chart-despite-companys-attempt-to-ban-its-promotion

| access-date = March 21, 2025

}}

}}

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Category:2025 non-fiction books

Category:English-language non-fiction books

Category:Facebook criticisms and controversies

Category:Flatiron Books books

Category:Works about Facebook