Meta puts stop on promotion of tell-all book by former employee

Meta on Wednesday won an emergency arbitration ruling to temporarily stop promotion of the tell-all book Careless People by a former employee, according to a copy of the ruling published by the social media company.

The book, written by a former director of global public policy at Meta, Sarah Wynn-Williams, was called by the New York Times book review “an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world”, and its leading executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan.

Meta will suffer “immediate and irreparable loss” in the absence of an emergency relief, the American Arbitration Association’s emergency arbitrator, Nicholas Gowen, said in a ruling after a hearing, which Wynn-Williams did not attend.

Book publisher Macmillan attended and argued it was not bound by the arbitration agreement, which was part of a severance agreement between the employee and company.

The ruling says that Wynn-Williams should stop promoting the book and, to the extent she could, stop further publication. It did not order any action by the publisher.

A Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, said in a post on Threads: “This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published”. Wynn-Williams and Macmillan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

A spokesperson for Pan Macmillan gave the Guardian this statement on Thursday: “Careless People is a first person narrative account of what the author herself, Sarah Wynn Williams, witnessed during seven years at Meta (formerly Facebook). As publishers, we are committed to upholding freedom of speech and her right to tell her story. Due to legal process instituted by Meta, the author has been prevented from continuing to participate in the book’s publicity.”