{"id":23855,"date":"2025-03-13T00:37:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T01:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23855"},"modified":"2025-03-13T02:25:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T02:25:01","slug":"meta-seeks-to-block-further-sales-of-ex-employees-scathing-memoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23855","title":{"rendered":"Meta Seeks to Block Further Sales of Ex-Employee\u2019s Scathing Memoir"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An arbitrator has prevented the employee from promoting her book and disparaging the company until private arbitration concludes.<\/p>\n

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Meta won a legal victory on Wednesday against a former employee who published an explosive, tell-all memoir, as an arbitrator temporarily prohibited the author from promoting or further distributing copies.<\/p>\n

Sarah Wynn-Williams last week released \u201cCareless People<\/a>: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,\u201d a book that describes a series of incendiary allegations of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by senior executives during her tenure at the company. Meta pursued arbitration, arguing that the book is prohibited under a nondisparagement contract she signed as a global affairs employee.<\/p>\n

During an emergency hearing on Wednesday, the arbitrator, Nicholas Gowen, found that Meta had provided enough grounds that Ms. Wynn-Williams had potentially violated her contract, according to a legal filing posted by Meta. The two parties will now begin private arbitration.<\/p>\n

In addition to halting book promotions and sales, Ms. Wynn-Williams must refrain from engaging in or \u201camplifying any further disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments,\u201d according to the filing. She also must retract all previous disparaging comments \u201cto the extent within her control.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The filing did not appear to limit the publisher, Flatiron Books, or its parent company, Macmillan, from continuing publication of the memoir.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCareless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism\u201d was released last week.<\/span>Flatiron, via Associated Press<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Meta has vehemently denied the allegations in the book.<\/p>\n

The book is a \u201cmix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,\u201d a Meta spokesman, Andy Stone, said in a statement. Ms. Wynn-Williams was fired for cause, he added, and an investigation at the time determined that \u201cshe made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Flatiron Books did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Ms. Wynn-Williams, who worked at what was then called Facebook from 2011 to 2018, did not comment.<\/p>\n

The move to publish the arbitration filing is one of Meta\u2019s most forceful public repudiations of a former employee\u2019s tell-all memoir, several of which have been published over the past two decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Meta executives have also responded online to Ms. Wynn-Williams\u2019s claims, calling most of them wildly exaggerated or flat-out false.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether Meta\u2019s attempts to claw back Ms. Wynn-Williams\u2019s book will ultimately be successful. In 2023, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that it is generally illegal for companies to offer severance agreements that prohibit workers from making potentially disparaging statements about former employers, including discussing sexual harassment or sexual assault accusations.<\/p>\n

In a Meta shareholder report in 2022, the company\u2019s board of directors said that it did not require employees \u201cto remain silent about harassment or discrimination,\u201d and that the company \u201cstrictly prohibits retaliation against any personnel\u201d for speaking up on these issues.<\/p>\n

And in 2018, Meta said it would no longer force employees to settle sexual harassment claims<\/a> in private arbitration, following a similar stance taken by Google at the time.<\/p>\n

Sheera Frenkel contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An arbitrator has prevented the employee from promoting her book and disparaging the company until private arbitration concludes.Meta won a legal victory on Wednesday against a former employee who published an explosive, tell-all memoir, as an arbitrator temporarily prohibited the author from promoting or further distributing copies.Sarah Wynn-Williams last week released \u201cCareless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,\u201d a book that describes a series of incendiary allegations of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by senior executives during her tenure at the company. Meta pursued arbitration, arguing that the book is prohibited under a nondisparagement contract she signed as a global affairs employee.During an emergency hearing on Wednesday, the arbitrator, Nicholas Gowen, found that Meta had provided enough grounds that Ms. Wynn-Williams had potentially violated her contract, according to a legal filing posted by Meta. The two parties will now begin private arbitration.In addition to halting book promotions and sales, Ms. Wynn-Williams must refrain from engaging in or \u201camplifying any further disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments,\u201d according to the filing. She also must retract all previous disparaging comments \u201cto the extent within her control.\u201dThe filing did not appear to limit the publisher, Flatiron Books, or its parent company, Macmillan, from continuing publication of the memoir.\u201cCareless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism\u201d was released last week.Flatiron, via Associated PressMeta has vehemently denied the allegations in the book.The book is a \u201cmix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,\u201d a Meta spokesman, Andy Stone, said in a statement. Ms. Wynn-Williams was fired for cause, he added, and an investigation at the time determined that \u201cshe made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.\u201dA spokeswoman for Flatiron Books did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Ms. Wynn-Williams, who worked at what was then called Facebook from 2011 to 2018, did not comment.The move to publish the arbitration filing is one of Meta\u2019s most forceful public repudiations of a former employee\u2019s tell-all memoir, several of which have been published over the past two decades.Meta executives have also responded online to Ms. Wynn-Williams\u2019s claims, calling most of them wildly exaggerated or flat-out false.It is unclear whether Meta\u2019s attempts to claw back Ms. Wynn-Williams\u2019s book will ultimately be successful. In 2023, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that it is generally illegal for companies to offer severance agreements that prohibit workers from making potentially disparaging statements about former employers, including discussing sexual harassment or sexual assault accusations.In a Meta shareholder report in 2022, the company\u2019s board of directors said that it did not require employees \u201cto remain silent about harassment or discrimination,\u201d and that the company \u201cstrictly prohibits retaliation against any personnel\u201d for speaking up on these issues.And in 2018, Meta said it would no longer force employees to settle sexual harassment claims in private arbitration, following a similar stance taken by Google at the time.Sheera Frenkel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23857,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23858,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23855\/revisions\/23858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}