A former Facebook policy executive is suing Meta over an arbitration order that has barred her for more than a year from speaking about her explosive memoir detailing her six-year tenure at the tech giant.
Sarah Wynn-Williams alleged Meta has used an invalid arbitration agreement to seek financial penalties of $50,000 for each purported violation of the gag order – including each book sale, according to a suit filed Thursday in US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Her book, “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, alleged Facebook executives and “careless” CEO Mark Zuckerberg were willing to share data with the Chinese Communist Party in exchange for access to the Chinese market.
Wynn-Williams also accused her former bosses of sexual harassment, alleging Joel Kaplan, Meta’s president of global affairs, pressed against her on the dance floor at a work event and called her “sultry.”
She also wrote that Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s former chief operating officer, spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and a young female assistant during a trip to Europe, and asked Wynn-Williams to join her in “the only bed on the plane” during a flight home on a private jet.
“This former employee is trying to use the legal process to sell books, which an arbitrator already ruled broke the agreement she signed with the company when she accepted a large severance payment years ago,” a Meta spokesperson told The Post.
Wynn-Williams was fired in 2017 and an investigation at the time found she made false claims against her colleagues, according to the company. An internal investigation into Kaplan ultimately cleared him of any wrongdoing, Meta has said.
Zuckerberg has said the company does not operate its services in China because it could never reach an agreement “on what it would take for us to operate there.”
A representative for Sandberg declined to comment.
Soon after Macmillan’s Flatiron imprint published Wynn-Williams book in March 2025, an arbitrator ruled that she needed to stop making “disparaging, critical, or otherwise detrimental comments” about Facebook and its employees.
Wynn-Williams is seeking to get that arbitration order lifted, her severance agreement with Meta voided and compensatory damages for lost book sales and speaking fees.
In the meantime, Wynn-Williams has seemingly found a way around halting her public appearances altogether.
In May, she attended the Hay Festival, a prestigious literary event, as an expert panelist on digital technology and public policy – but she sat on-stage in complete silence for the full hour, per the advice of her lawyer.
After her appearance at the Hay Festival, which takes place in a small town on the border of England and Wales, sales of “Careless People” soared more than 300% in the UK, according to the Guardian.
A Meta representative also traveled to the festival, and Meta requested that the arbitrator sanction Wynn-Williams for attending the event, she alleged in her complaint.
After she was fired from Meta, Wynn-Williams signed a severance agreement that included a non-disparagement agreement and mandatory arbitration clauses, according to the lawsuit.
She alleged Meta had made its reimbursement of $300,000 in pre-approved business expenses – including travel costs for Zuckerberg – conditional on her signing the agreement. Meta ultimately reimbursed a fraction of the charges, the complaint said.
The tech giant also allegedly insisted she sign the severance agreement to maintain healthcare coverage for herself and her children, which was “critical” given a “life-threatening health condition” she experienced during childbirth, according to the complaint.
A year later, Facebook announced it would no longer force employees to arbitrate claims related to sexual harassment, and in 2022, California banned employers from using separation agreements that prohibit the disclosure of illegal work acts.
In a 2022 proxy statement, Meta’s board wrote: “We do not require our personnel to enter into employment agreements that include non-disparagement clauses that would prevent them from discussing workplace conduct.”
Wynn-Williams believed this “policy shift permitted her” to speak freely, “and that she would not be forced to arbitrate any claims” – so she filed whistleblower complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, and agreed to publish a book, according to the complaint.
News Corp, The Post’s owner, has an AI content-licensing deal with Meta.
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