Careless People spans Wynn-Willliams time at Facebook, beginning with her hire in 2011 as a ‘diplomat’ responsible for guiding the rules on data and content, until her sacking in 2017 on the back of accusations of misconduct leveled against Joel Kaplan. The book covers perspectives on a number of episodes, including the failure of internet.org, the role served by the platform in the promoting violence against the Rohingya people in Myanmar, the push to get into China even if that meant supporting state surveillance, the use of image-based data associated with teens to target them, and the role the platform served in helping bring Donald Trump to victory in 2016.
The world described felt like it was somewhere between the absurdity of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the film Devil Wears Prada. Cartoon pictures to describe a cartoon world? Some of the particular stories recounted included Mark Zuckerberg’s proposal to provide internet for refugees, until someone realised that refugees do not have any money to pay, being invited to bed by Sheryl Sandberg, trying to concoct a meeting between Xi Jinping and Mark Zuckerberg, writing an email in the midst of giving birth, and being described as not responsive during maternity leave during which time Wynn-Williams’ had an amniotic embolism and was in a coma.
The further the book went on the more that it felt like Wynn-William possibly trying to get on the right side of history. Not everyone jets around with Sandburg and Zuckerberg, right? This is something that Tom MacWright touches on in his review:
Katie Harbath second-guesses Wynn-Williams’s reports of sexual harassment and expects Sarah to acknowledge “the incredible contributions of her peers” in her work – like the take-home lesson of this book is that Wynn-Williams is so great at her job, not that it’s an account of the evil at the top. Another former Facebook employee, Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, wrote that Wynn-Williams was complicit, which is something the author never denies.
Source: Careless People by Tom MacWright
I am not exactly sure what I expected from Sarah Wynn-Williams’ memoir of her time as director of global public policy at Facebook. Like Cory Doctorow, I think I was drawn to it by the fact that they tried to have it banned.
I never would have read Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams’s tell-all memoir about her years running global policy for Facebook, but then Meta’s lawyer tried to get the book suppressed and secured an injunction to prevent her from promoting it:
So I’ve got something to thank Meta’s lawyers for, because it’s a great book!
Source: Sarah Wynn-Williams’s ‘Careless People’ (23 Apr 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Meta claimed that the book is ‘false and defamatory’:
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”.
Source: Meta puts stop on promotion of tell-all book by former employee by Guardian
I could not help see the irony of this with Wynn-Williams’ account about Sheryl Sandberg and her belief in people saying things because you want them to be true:
Sheryl, who advocates for women in the workplace day after day, in bestselling books, TED talks, and panels around the world? I remember her once writing in a message,
I always believe that when companies and people have to say things over and over it is because they want them to be true but they are not. When I was at McKinsey, they always said they were “non-hierarchical” because they were so hierarchical. Google is “not political.” One of our favorite candidates who almost joined us was “highly ethical.”
Source: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
All in all, Careless People is a sadly humorous book that pulled back the curtain on the façade.
“Careless People” is darkly funny and genuinely shocking: an ugly, detailed portrait of one of the most powerful companies in the world. What Wynn-Williams reveals will undoubtedly trigger her former bosses’ ire. Not only does she have the storytelling chops to unspool a gripping narrative; she also delivers the goods.
Source: A Facebook Insider’s Exposé Alleges Bad Behavior at the Top by Jennifer Szalai
It would have been more enjoyable if it were not so serious.
REVIEW: Careless People (Sarah Wynn-Williams) by Aaron Davis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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