The Japan Times - Former Meta employee barred from promoting explosive memoir

EUR -
AED 3.994578
AFN 76.887936
ALL 99.397449
AMD 426.374576
ANG 1.962862
AOA 991.94594
ARS 1162.092983
AUD 1.718698
AWG 1.957788
AZN 1.851598
BAM 1.954767
BBD 2.199037
BDT 132.330037
BGN 1.947592
BHD 0.410579
BIF 3227.034527
BMD 1.08766
BND 1.453605
BOB 7.526021
BRL 6.246651
BSD 1.089124
BTN 94.66695
BWP 14.838155
BYN 3.564216
BYR 21318.135098
BZD 2.187643
CAD 1.563702
CDF 3128.110153
CHF 0.96191
CLF 0.026406
CLP 1013.329231
CNY 7.87232
CNH 7.875387
COP 4492.720836
CRC 544.107328
CUC 1.08766
CUP 28.822989
CVE 110.206734
CZK 25.020513
DJF 193.937465
DKK 7.460868
DOP 68.483163
DZD 145.3155
EGP 54.991797
ERN 16.314899
ETB 143.048655
FJD 2.491832
FKP 0.840551
GBP 0.84106
GEL 3.018242
GGP 0.840551
GHS 16.881075
GIP 0.840551
GMD 78.311523
GNF 9417.847606
GTQ 8.396561
GYD 227.859531
HKD 8.452091
HNL 27.853018
HRK 7.532476
HTG 142.833171
HUF 399.619345
IDR 17809.887917
ILS 3.980289
IMP 0.840551
INR 94.415356
IQD 1426.745679
IRR 45790.484347
ISK 146.311934
JEP 0.840551
JMD 170.559825
JOD 0.771147
JPY 162.15324
KES 140.854207
KGS 95.115857
KHR 4363.652816
KMF 491.459541
KPW 978.893959
KRW 1574.279305
KWD 0.335075
KYD 0.90762
KZT 545.831419
LAK 23592.526627
LBP 97583.307688
LKR 322.809331
LRD 217.814841
LSL 19.815723
LTL 3.211577
LVL 0.657915
LYD 5.243228
MAD 10.540527
MDL 19.380753
MGA 5078.315094
MKD 61.497486
MMK 2284.068557
MNT 3776.879509
MOP 8.71869
MRU 43.27972
MUR 48.999147
MVR 16.760355
MWK 1888.501549
MXN 21.675301
MYR 4.837367
MZN 69.514472
NAD 19.815723
NGN 1677.661475
NIO 40.078074
NOK 11.5764
NPR 151.465528
NZD 1.88877
OMR 0.418799
PAB 1.089124
PEN 3.995188
PGK 4.476551
PHP 62.257793
PKR 305.083902
PLN 4.187084
PYG 8647.428103
QAR 3.969501
RON 4.976805
RSD 117.148064
RUB 93.003844
RWF 1529.891146
SAR 4.079271
SBD 9.14847
SCR 15.63732
SDG 653.682971
SEK 11.029835
SGD 1.451449
SHP 0.85473
SLE 24.831398
SLL 22807.686583
SOS 622.4709
SRD 39.502716
STD 22512.365071
SVC 9.529962
SYP 14141.690202
SZL 19.82252
THB 36.605198
TJS 11.871224
TMT 3.817686
TND 3.364821
TOP 2.547411
TRY 39.901349
TTD 7.39509
TWD 35.904197
TZS 2886.914936
UAH 45.178514
UGX 3991.889487
USD 1.08766
UYU 46.41546
UZS 14107.54134
VES 69.726055
VND 27773.396925
VUV 133.735875
WST 3.065565
XAF 655.610379
XAG 0.032185
XAU 0.000364
XCD 2.939456
XDR 0.815369
XOF 655.610379
XPF 119.331742
YER 268.380589
ZAR 19.831081
ZMK 9790.240117
ZMW 31.175517
ZWL 350.226061
  • NGG

    0.8900

    63.21

    +1.41%

  • SCS

    0.2000

    10.99

    +1.82%

  • RBGPF

    66.0200

    66.02

    +100%

  • RIO

    1.8400

    63.04

    +2.92%

  • RYCEF

    0.0500

    10.4

    +0.48%

  • RELX

    1.1200

    48.93

    +2.29%

  • CMSC

    0.0500

    23.22

    +0.22%

  • BP

    1.0200

    33.39

    +3.05%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    39.49

    +0.66%

  • BTI

    -0.0200

    41.36

    -0.05%

  • JRI

    0.0335

    12.83

    +0.26%

  • VOD

    0.0500

    9.55

    +0.52%

  • AZN

    1.0900

    77.6

    +1.4%

  • BCC

    2.9700

    99.35

    +2.99%

  • BCE

    -0.1990

    23.47

    -0.85%

  • CMSD

    0.1500

    23.35

    +0.64%

Former Meta employee barred from promoting explosive memoir
Former Meta employee barred from promoting explosive memoir / Photo: JULIEN DE ROSA - AFP/File

Former Meta employee barred from promoting explosive memoir

Facebook parent company Meta is seeking to silence a former employee who has made scandalous allegations in a new tell-all book, obtaining a ruling to temporarily bar her from promoting the memoir or bad-mouthing the tech giant.

Text size:

In "Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism," released on Tuesday, Sarah Wynn-Williams recounts working at the tech titan from 2011 to 2017.

Her book includes claims of sexual harassment by longtime company executive Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican and ally of President Donald Trump who took over as head of Meta's international affairs team early this year.

She also wrote of Meta, then known as Facebook, exploring the possibility of breaking into the lucrative China market by appeasing government censors there.

"The suggestion was that as part of the negotiations for the company to enter into China, the data of users in Hong Kong could be put in play," Wynn-Williams said in an interview with NPR.

An idea was to flag content in Hong Kong or Taiwan that went "viral" and refer it to a censorship body for review, according to Wynn-Williams.

Meta quickly took the matter to arbitration, contending the book violates a non-disparagement contract signed by Wynn-Williams when she worked with the company's global affairs team.

An arbitration court this week granted Meta's request to bar Wynn-Williams from promoting the book or making derogatory statements about the company

She also must retract previous critical comments about Meta or its executives, according to the ruling, which will remain in place until the dispute is settled in a private arbitration process.

"This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn-Williams' false and defamatory book should never have been published," Meta communications director Andy Stone said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"It's no secret we were interested in China; we explore lots of ideas," Stone said.

"You know what didn't happen? We didn't start offering our services in China."

- Talk nice -

Stone said Wynn-Williams was "fired for poor performance and toxic behavior," having made a series of unfounded allegations that the company investigated.

The order by the arbitration body, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, does not however stop Macmillan Publishers from distributing copies of the memoir.

Macmillan said it was "appalled by Meta's tactics to silence our author through the use of a non-disparagement clause in a severance agreement," adding it would "absolutely continue to support and promote" the book.

Emergency arbitrator Nicholas Gowan noted that Wynn-Williams failed to appear for a hearing in the case, but also that the ruling did not address the merits of the case.

Meta has recently been criticized for stepping back from workplace diversity efforts and from battling misinformation in what critics say appears to be an alignment with Trump.

Meta early this year announced it was replacing its fact-checking program, of which AFP was a part, with "community notes."

M.Matsumoto--JT