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Meta wins bid to prevent Pan Macmillan author and former employee from promoting memoir
An emergency arbitrator in the US has temporarily prohibited Meta’s former director of global public policy and author of the memoir Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams, from promoting or further distributing copies of her book.
The memoir, published in the UK on 13th March by Pan Macmillan and in the US by Flatiron Books (an imprint of Macmillan Books) on 11th March, “details the lengths to which Meta’s leaders were willing to go to achieve growth at any cost” and is full of “never-before-told bombshell revelations”, Pan Macmillan said.
The book includes allegations of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behaviour during her time at the company. A Meta spokesperson called the claims "out-of-date and false".
An emergency arbitration ruling on Wednesday (12th March) found Meta had "provided sufficient grounds that Wynn-Williams had potentially violated her nondisparagement contract with the company" and that Meta would face “immediate and irreparable loss [...] in the absence of immediate relief”.
The emergency arbitrator ruled that Wynn-Williams was therefore prevented “from making orally, in writing or otherwise any disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments to any person or entity concerning [Meta]" and “from promoting Careless People on a book tour or otherwise, including with respect to electronic and audio versions of the book”.
“To the extent within Wynn-Williams’ control” she is also prevented “from further publishing or distributing Careless People”. Despite this, a spokesperson for Pan Macmillan told The Bookseller it would continue to publish the book.
A spokesperson for the publisher said: “Careless People is a first-person narrative account of what the author herself, Sarah Wynn-Williams, witnessed during seven years at Meta (formerly Facebook). As publishers, we are committed to upholding freedom of speech and her right to tell her story. Due to a legal process instituted by Meta, the author has been prevented from continuing to participate in the book’s publicity."
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A Meta spokesperson said of Wynn-Williams’ claims: "This book is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives. Eight years ago, Sarah Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance and toxic behaviour, and an investigation at the time determined she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment. Since then, she has been paid by anti-Facebook activists and this is simply a continuation of that work. Whistleblower status protects communications to the government, not disgruntled activists trying to sell books."
Wynn-Williams has been contacted through her publisher for a response to Meta’s statement.
Macmillan Publishers and Flatiron Books, collectively "Macmillan", attended the hearing and argued it was not bound by the arbitration agreement, which was part of a severance agreement between Wynn-Williams and the company. The ruling did not order any action by the publisher. The two parties – Wynn-Williams and Meta – will now begin private arbitration, according to the New York Times.
A Meta spokesperson said: "This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn-Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published. This urgent legal action was made necessary by Williams, who, more than eight years after being terminated by the company, deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to shelves."
Pan Macmillan said: "Documents and emails were used to support a legal read in three different major jurisdictions, and to support the claims in the book. This goes beyond the default standard industry process for a memoir.”
A spokesperson for Curtis Brown said: "We support our author, and all of our clients, in their right to freedom of expression.” Mike Harpley, publisher of non-fiction at Macmillan, bought UK and British Commonwealth rights to the book from Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown.
