Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
3.5 ⭐’s- Read-Worthy!
Kindle & Audible: US or CA
I had no idea what this book was about when I first picked it up, but if you’re interested in political intrigue, some of the background policy and the teams behind social media, this is definitely worth the read and quite the eye opener.
Disclaimer: This is a 3.5-star review because, within my rating system, a 4 star means I would buy a copy for my shelf at home. A 5-star means it is rave worthy and I would invest in a hard copy. This may not make its way onto my physical shelves, but it is absolutely one of my must-reads of the year!
Careless People is a memoir of Sarah’s seven years as Facebook’s director of global public policy. She joined as a true believer thinking Facebook could change the world, and watched it become something else.
So at first I thought that this was just an interesting listen as I went about my day and errands. I won’t lie, there was even a moment where I thought ‘ok, is this a serious issue within the framework of a multi-billion dollar company, and it’s leadership, that needs to be brought to light, or is this someone trying to supplement their income because they were let go?’
So, I did a quick google search on the book and oh my gosh, the rabbit hole is real!
Days before publication (March 2025), Meta invoked a non-disparagement clause from her 2017 severance agreement and got an emergency arbitration order barring her from promoting the book, making any “disparaging, critical or detrimental” comments about Meta, or distributing copies within her control. (The Times Article)
Please understand that the arbitrator never ruled on whether her claims of her time spent at the company were true, only that she “potentially violated” the severance contract. Meta never sued for defamation, which would have forced them to prove her claims false. To this day Sarah is banned from promoting her own book by a company that is not refuting the facts laid out in said book, but based on a severance technicality.
A colleague, Brook Oberwetter, even backed Sarah’s claims in her own statement on Linkedin. God Bless.
Macmillan, who noted that the order only ever bound her, not the publisher, ignored the ruling, the book stayed on sale, and it still hit #1 on the NYT bestseller list.
The drama that can happen behind non-fiction books is insane, and I would honestly LOVE to see a movie that is not just based off the book, but includes the fallout of its publication as well.
What non-fiction book would you recommend to reframe current events?
-Anna R.
*As always if you purchase through any of the links in this post, or throughout this blog, a small commission comes back to help support the page & what I do here!
Kindle & Audible: US or CA
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