Meta has successfully obtained an emergency ruling at an arbitration hearing in Los Angeles to temporarily stop the promotion of a controversial memoir, “Careless People,” penned by its former director of public policy, Sarah Wynn-Williams. The book contains allegations of misconduct by senior executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former operating chief Sheryl Sandberg.
According to the memoir, Sandberg allegedly spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and a young female assistant, whom she later invited to join her in bed on a private flight back from Europe. Wynn-Williams also accused executive Joel Kaplan of sexual harassment and claimed that Zuckerberg aided China in developing censorship tools.
Emergency arbitrator Nicolas Gowen from the American Arbitration Association agreed with Meta’s argument that it faced “immediate and irreparable loss” without intervention. He also acknowledged that Meta had demonstrated a likelihood of success regarding its contractual non-disparagement claim against Wynn-Williams.
The arbitration proceedings were initiated due to Wynn-Williams’ agreement to an arbitration clause in her severance contract with Facebook, where she worked for six years until 2017, prior to the company’s rebranding to Meta.
As per the ruling, Wynn-Williams must cease further promotion of the book and refrain from making disparaging comments about Meta or its employees. She is also required, to the extent within her control, to halt further distribution of “Careless People.” Publisher Macmillan, which released the memoir under its imprint Flatiron Books, argued it was not bound by Wynn-Williams’ arbitration agreement with Meta. The arbitrator’s decision did not impose restrictions on the publisher.
As of Thursday morning, major retailers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble continued to sell the book online.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone stated, “This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn-Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published.” Stone accused Wynn-Williams of deliberately concealing the existence of her book project and bypassing standard fact-checking processes.
Former Meta employee Sarah Feinberg defended Kaplan and other executives in a lengthy Threads post, countering the claims made in the book.
— news from New York Post