Ex-Meta policy director Sarah Wynn-Williams fights gag orders blocking Careless People memoir

A former senior figure at Meta has gone to court alleging the company is trying to shut down public discussion of her book, Careless People.

Papers filed on Thursday in the US federal court for Northern California argue that a private arbitration ruling blocking her from talking about Meta or marketing the bestseller should be thrown out. The filing also says the non-disparagement clause in the separation deal she signed when leaving the firm was agreed under duress.

Sarah Wynn-Williams was director of global public policy at Facebook — now part of parent company Meta Platforms Inc. — from 2011 until she was fired in 2017.

Careless People recounts what she describes as cruel and disturbing conduct by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders, and outlines alleged efforts by Zuckerberg to win favour with officials in China. Meta maintains she broke her contract and produced a work full of inaccuracies.

The suit says Meta is demanding US$50,000 in damages for each alleged breach of the non-disparagement pact, a move Wynn-Williams says leaves her under heavy financial pressure. She wants the court to lift the arbitration order and set aside her severance agreement.

In a statement, Meta said its "former employee is trying to use the legal process to sell books, which an arbitrator already ruled broke the agreement she signed with the company when she accepted a large severance payment years ago. Her book is divorced from reality, disparaging and riddled with false claims."

According to the complaint, Meta obtained an emergency order barring Wynn-Williams and her attorneys from criticising the company or promoting the book. For more than a year after publication, the suit claims, Meta kept watch over her, with representatives attending her public events and taking photographs, "all to document that at each event, Ms. Wynn-Williams said nothing about Meta or her book".

The filing also says Meta challenged her appearance at a UK arts and literary festival earlier this year, where she joined a panel but stayed quiet because other panellists had been critics of the company.

"Meta is pursuing Ms. Wynn-Williams at the expense of free speech and legal constraints not only because she refused to bow to the greed and power of Meta, Mr. Zuckerberg, and other executives, but also to strike fear into the heart of anyone else who dares to consider speaking the truth about Meta's unlawful and abusive practices in the public interest," the lawsuit says.