Sarah Wynn-Williams

Wynn-Williams grew up in Christchurch.{{cite news |first=Julie |last=Hill |title=When Zuck snubbed Key: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams, reviewed |url= https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/24-03-2025/when-zuck-snubbed-key-careless-people-by-sarah-wynn-williams-reviewed |access-date=29 April 2025 |work=The Spinoff |date=24 March 2025}} In 1993, she was attacked by a shark as a teenager while holidaying at the Golden Bay Holiday Park in Tukurua (part of Parapara) in Golden Bay / Mohua.{{Cite news |last=Hubbard |first=Catherine |date=22 March 2025 |access-date=20 April 2025 |title=Mystery shark attack victim revealed as Sarah Wynn-Williams |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360618281/mystery-shark-attack-victim-revealed-sarah-wynn-williams |work=The Nelson Mail}}{{cite book |last=Wynn-Williams |first=Sarah |title=Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism |publisher=Flatiron Books |publication-place=New York |year=2025 |isbn=978-1-250-39123-0 |oclc=1504756807 |page=7}} She graduated with a B.A. from the University of Canterbury and a M.L. from Victoria University.

Wynn-Williams practiced law at the Mallesons, Stephen, Jacques law firm. From 2002 to 2007, she was a policy adviser in the diplomatic service of the New Zealand government. From 2007–2011, she managed New Zealand's political affairs and government relations office at its embassy in Washington, D.C. She has also worked for Oxfam International.{{cite web |date=2025-03-10 |title=Sarah Wynn-Williams |url=https://www.weforum.org/people/sarah-wynn-williams/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=World Economic Forum}}{{Cite web |title='Careless People': The book Meta doesn't want you to read |url=https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/careless-people-the-book-meta-doesnt-want-you-to-read.html |access-date=2025-07-01 |website=Information Age}}

Wynn-Williams began working for Facebook in 2011, eventually becoming its global public policy director.{{cite web |last=Duffy |first=Clare |title=Ex-Meta executive: 'People deserve to know what this company is really like' |website=CNN |date=2025-03-11 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/11/tech/meta-whistleblower-book-sarah-wynn-williams/index.html |access-date=2025-03-13}} Facebook terminated Williams's employment in 2017, allegedly for "poor performance and toxic behavior".{{cite web |last1=Daisley |first1=Bruce |title=Careless People—the jaw-dropping account of Sarah Wynn-Williams' time at Facebook—The executive's harrowing, tell-all memoir questions the integrity of the world's biggest social network company |url=https://www.ft.com/content/51d5ed0b-fff4-4c54-bd74-db570bae2fed |access-date=March 12, 2025 |work=Financial Times |publisher=}} Williams has stated she believes this was in retaliation for reporting her boss Joel Kaplan for sexual harassment.{{cite web |last=Rissman |first=Kelly |title=Ex-Facebook worker claims she was fired after she reported sexual harassment by company executive|website=MSN |date=2025-03-13 |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ex-facebook-worker-claims-she-was-fired-after-she-reported-sexual-harassment-by-company-executive/ar-AA1ADPA8 |access-date=2025-03-13}}

{{Main article|Careless People}}

In 2025, she released Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, a book about her career at Facebook.

The book's most significant revelations were an alleged “lethal carelessness” around ethical choices such as that that Meta worked with the Chinese Communist Party to spec and build censorship tools that worked with Chinas Great Firewall, and insights into Mark Zuckerberg's attitudes around international public policy during her tenure.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Tom |date=Apr 22, 2025 |title='Careless People': The book Meta doesn't want you to read |url=https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/careless-people-the-book-meta-doesnt-want-you-to-read.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250425120217/https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/careless-people-the-book-meta-doesnt-want-you-to-read.html |archive-date=2025-04-25 |access-date= |website=Information Age}}{{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}}

Facebook threatened legal action{{cite web |last=Datta |first=Anupriya |date=2025-03-10 |title=Meta to take legal action against Macmillan books over explosive memoir |url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/news/meta-to-take-legal-action-against-macmillan-books-over-explosive-memoir/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Euractiv}}{{Cite magazine |last=Zavaleta |first=Jonathan |date=2025-03-10 |title=Meta Forcefully Responds to 'Searing' Memoir From Former Facebook Official |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/product-recommendations/books/meta-facebook-memoir-careless-people-preorder-book-1235289691/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}} and an arbitrator prohibited Williams from promoting the book.{{cite news |last=Vanian |first=Jonathan |title=Meta goes to arbitrator to prevent whistleblower from promoting tell-all book |website=CNBC |date=2025-03-12 |url= https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/12/arbitrator-prohibits-meta-whistleblower-from-promoting-tell-all-book.html |access-date=2025-03-13}}{{Cite news |last=Hiltzik |first=Michael |date=2025-03-23 |title=Inside the book Zuckerberg is trying to suppress |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-inside-the-book-zu/172326086/ |access-date=2025-05-13 |work=The Los Angeles Times |pages=A002}} Facebook is attempting to enforce a non-disparagement agreement.{{Cite magazine |last=Lapowsky |first=Issie |date=2025-03-12 |title=Meta's Response to Explosive Tell-All Is Ripped From a Familiar PR Playbook |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/metas-response-explosive-tell-all-pr |access-date=2025-03-13 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}} Facebook/Meta has argued that the book is "out of date" and does not reflect current practices.

In what has been described as an example of the Streisand effect, Facebook's legal action led to greater publicity and increased book sales.{{Cite news |last=Eaton |first=Kit |date=March 17, 2025 |title=Meta's Efforts to Block a Muckraking Exposé Make 'Careless People' a Must-Read Book |url=https://www.inc.com/kit-eaton/metas-efforts-to-block-a-muckraking-expose-make-careless-people-a-must-read-book/91162140 |access-date=March 17, 2025 |work=Inc.}}{{Cite news |last=Zara |first=Christopher |date=2025-03-13 |title=A Meta tell-all memoir is soaring on Amazon's best-sellers rankings after legal efforts to quash it |url= https://www.fastcompany.com/91297683/meta-tell-all-memoir-carless-people-amazon-book-best-seller-rank-legal-fight |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250314123030/https://www.fastcompany.com/91297683/meta-tell-all-memoir-carless-people-amazon-book-best-seller-rank-legal-fight |archive-date=2025-03-14 |access-date=2025-03-18 |work=Fast Company |language=en-US}}{{cite news |last1=Creamer |first1=Ella |title=Meta exposé tops bestseller chart despite company's attempt to ban its promotion |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/20/meta-expose-tops-bestseller-chart-despite-companys-attempt-to-ban-its-promotion |access-date=March 20, 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=March 20, 2025}}

In their review of the book, The Guardian's Stuart Jeffries said that Wynn-Williams' retelling of her time at Facebook had "cult vibes" and involves strong criticism of internet.org and Facebook's corporate leadership.{{Cite news |last=Jeffries |first=Stuart |date=2025-03-16 |title=Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams review – a former disciple unfriends Facebook |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=2025-03-19 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, a former head of public policy for Meta in Bangladesh who worked for the company at different times than Wynn-Williams, described the book as "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=2025-03-26 |title=A former Meta employee reviews the new Facebook memoir |url=https://restofworld.org/2025/careless-people-book-review-facebook-global-policy/ |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=Rest of World |language=en-US}}

Wynn-Williams testified about Facebook/Meta before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 9, 2025.{{Cite news |last=Ortutay |first=Barbara |date=2025-04-10 |title=Former Facebook executive testifies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/rapid-city-journal-former-facebook-execu/172326291/ |access-date=2025-05-13 |work=Rapid City Journal |pages=A9}}

Wynn-Williams is married to a journalist. She has three children.{{Cite web |last=Bradley |first=Faye |date=2025-03-19 |title=Who is Meta whistle-blower Sarah Wynn-Williams, whose new book is causing a stir? |url= https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/entertainment/article/3303015/who-meta-whistle-blower-sarah-wynn-williams-former-new-zealand-diplomat-used-work-careless-people |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}

• {{cite book |last=Wynn-Williams |first=Sarah |title=Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism |publisher=Flatiron Books |publication-place=New York |year=2025 |isbn=978-1-250-39123-0 |oclc=1504756807}}{{cite web |last=Szalai |first=Jennifer |date=2025-03-10 |title=Book Review: 'Careless People,' by Sarah Wynn-Williams |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/books/review/careless-people-sarah-wynn-williams.html |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=The New York Times}}{{cite news |last=Nix |first=Naomi |date=2025-03-09 |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=2025-03-11 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{cite web |last=Nolan |first=Beatrice |date=2025-03-11 |title=Former Meta says Mark Zuckerberg worked 'hand in glove' with Beijing |url=https://fortune.com/2025/03/11/sarah-wynn-williams-facebook-meta-mark-zuckerberg-china/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Fortune}}{{cite news |date=2025-03-10 |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 |access-date=2025-03-11 |work=NBC News |first1=David |last1=Ingram |first2=Kenzi |last2=Abou-Sabe}}{{cite web |last=Rissman |first=Kelly |date=2025-03-10 |title=Ex-Facebook worker claims she was fired after she reported sexual harassment |url=https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/facebook-sarah-wynn-williams-harassment-fired-b2712348.html |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=The Independent}}{{cite news |title=Kiwi former exec exposes Meta in 'explosive' tell-all memoir |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360609865/kiwi-former-exec-exposes-meta-explosive-tell-all-memoir |access-date=2025-03-11 |work=Stuff |first=Ava |last=Whitworth}}

• Criticism of Facebook
• Lean In

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web |last=Inskeep |first=Steve |title=Former Meta executive barred from discussing criticism of the company |website=NPR |date=2025-03-14 |url=https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/nx-s1-5318854/former-meta-executive-barred-from-discussing-criticism-of-the-company |access-date=2025-03-14}} An audio interview with Wynn-Williams before the prohibition on promoting her book.

{{Authority control}}

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