A new memoir by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Meta employee titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” alleges that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a “careless” executive who attempted to persuade China to allow his company to operate there by assisting in the development of censorship tools and enhancing its AI capabilities, while keeping these efforts hidden from Congress.
According to a report in NewYork Post, Wynn-Williams, who worked at Facebook for seven years before it rebranded as Meta, describes a “rotten company culture” under Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg, with “shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards.” The book portrays the two executives as “callously indifferent” to the consequences others faced for their personal gain.
Meta responded to The NewYork Post, stating, “We haven’t seen the book, but this former employee was terminated in 2017 and an investigation at that time found she made false claims.” The spokesperson cited Zuckerberg’s 2019 televised address, where he said, “[He] wanted our services in China … and worked hard to make this happen. But we could never come to agreement on what it would take for us to operate there,” explaining why Meta’s services are not available in China today.
Book slams Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg
Published by Flatiron Books and Pan Macmillan, the memoir is described as a “deeply personal account” of Meta’s leadership and culture, revealing “previously unreported lengths” Zuckerberg went to in order to convince the Chinese Communist Party to allow Meta to operate in China, including providing briefings on AI, developing censorship tools with the CCP, and concealing this cooperation from Congress.
Wynn-Williams also reportedly criticizes Meta for failing to stop “genocide-fueling lies” abroad and for “workplace harassment and misogyny.” She singles out Sandberg for not addressing the challenges of working motherhood while receiving “international acclaim for urging women to ‘Lean In.'”
Incidentally, the book’s release was closely guarded, with Flatiron announcing it less than a week before publication, and Amazon initially listing it as “Untitled-Flatiron-Author-Revealed-March.”
When Zuckerberg said why Facebook did not launch in China
Despite Zuckerberg’s efforts to expand into China, including learning Mandarin and meeting with officials, Facebook has been blocked there since 2009. In 2016, The New York Times reported that Facebook developed software to suppress posts in specific areas to comply with China’s regulations, but it was never launched due to internal concerns over free speech.
In a 2019 speech at Georgetown University, Mark Zuckerberg said Meta’s absence from China was due to its refusal to comply with the country’s censorship demands. “I wanted our services in China because I believe in connecting the whole world,” he said. “But we could never agree on what it would take to operate there, and they never let us in.”
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