Meta is scrambling to block the release of an explosive tell-all memoir that alleges sordid misdeeds by top brass — including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and ex-operating chief Sheryl Sandberg.
The social media giant won an emergency ruling at an arbitration hearing in Los Angeles on Wednesday to temporarily halt promotion of “Careless People,” written by Sarah Wynn-Williams, Facebook’s former director of public policy. Wynn-Williams has reportedly filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC.
The book claims that Sandberg once spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and a young female assistant whom she later invited to “come to bed” on a private flight home from Europe. Wynn-Williams also accused top executive Joel Kaplan of sexual harassment and Zuckerberg of helping China to develop censorship tools in a failed bid to get his social media apps unblocked in the country.
Emergency arbitrator Nicolas Gowen of the American Arbitration Association sided with Meta’s argument that it faced “immediate and irreparable loss” without relief. He also found that Meta had “established a likelihood of success on the merits of its contractual non-disparagement claim” against Wynn-Williams.
The proceedings took place because Wynn-Williams agreed to an arbitration clause in her severance agreement with Facebook, according to the filing. Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook for six years and left in 2017, before it was renamed Meta.
In the ruling, Wynn-Williams was ordered to stop further promotion of the book or making any disparaging remarks about Meta or its employees and, to the extent within her control, to stop further distribution of “Careless People.”
Book publisher Macmillan, which published the memoir through its imprint Flatiron Books, attended the hearing and argued it was not subject to Wynn-Williams’ arbitration agreement with Meta. The arbitrator’s ruling did not appear to order any restrictions on the publisher.
As of Thursday morning, major retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble were still selling the book online.
The company has said Wynn-Williams was fired due to “poor performance and toxic behavior.”
“This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn-Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published,” Meta spokesman Andy Stone wrote in a Threads post alongside a copy of the arbitration court’s decision.
Stone asserted that Wynn-Williams had “deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to the shelves after waiting for eight years.”
The Meta spokesman said in a previous statement that an “investigation at the time determined she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment” and that Wynn-Williams was “paid by anti-Facebook activists.”
Macmillian did not immediately return a request for comment on the ruling.
In the book, Wynn-Williams alleged that Kaplan — who currently serves as Meta’s global head of public policy — had made her uncomfortable with his behavior.
Wynn-Williams claimed Kaplan once pressed himself against her on the dance floor at a company event and commented that she looked “sultry” while making unwelcome remarks about her husband.
Later, Kaplan allegedly pestered Wynn-Williams by email to attend weekly videoconferences as she recovered from a near-fatal complication during the birth of her second child.
Kaplan was later cleared of wrongdoing following a company investigation.
Meanwhile, Sarah Feinberg, a former Meta employee, came to the defense of Kaplan and other executives in a lengthy Threads post responding to the book’s claims.
“I worked with Joel Kaplan throughout my years at Facebook – he was one of my closest colleagues – and I have never observed him be anything other than professional, thoughtful, strategic and fair,” Feinberg wrote.
