Book Review: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Buy Careless People (international edition) on Amazon
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Mark Zuckerberg Doesn’t Want You to Read This Book—Or This Review
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has done its best to keep Sarah Wynn-Williams’s explosive new memoir, Careless People (Buy here), out of the public eye. In a dramatic attempt to suppress its contents, Meta obtained a temporary injunction from a U.S. arbitrator preventing Wynn-Williams from promoting the book. Nevertheless, publisher Macmillan pressed ahead with its UK release, ensuring that Zuckerberg and his team couldn’t silence this damning insider account.
The book’s title is a deliberate nod to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, where Tom and Daisy Buchanan leave a trail of destruction in their wake, careless of the consequences. Wynn-Williams applies the same metaphor to Zuckerberg and former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
“There were no adults in the room,” she writes. “These are people who have assumed a lot of power, thinking none of the rules apply to them.”
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The Babysitter for Silicon Valley’s Most Powerful Man
Wynn-Williams, who joined Facebook in 2011 and rose to become its global public policy director before being fired in 2017, pulls no punches in her assessment of Zuckerberg. She describes her role at times as akin to babysitting a billionaire toddler.
He resented early meetings, preferring to sleep in rather than meet world leaders. His inner circle, she writes, indulged his every whim—including deliberately losing board games to maintain his fragile ego.
She also recounts a particularly uncomfortable encounter with Sandberg on a private flight, where she was invited to share the only available bed. After declining, she says, she found herself gradually ostracized within the company. “The rules just don’t apply,” she notes. “It is about being surrounded by enablers, an expression of power.”
The Sexual Harassment Allegation That Led to Her Dismissal
Before her dismissal in 2017, Wynn-Williams alleges she was sexually harassed by her superior, Joel Kaplan, who now serves as Meta’s VP of Global Affairs. She claims that after reporting the harassment, she was swiftly sidelined and ultimately fired.
Meta conducted an internal investigation that exonerated Kaplan, an outcome Wynn-Williams describes as predictable given the company’s long-standing culture of shielding top executives.
“Quick euthanasia” is how she describes her firing. “It wasn’t relief, because I was terrified that was my career torched. I was just so torn up … it’s extreme outcomes and extreme carelessness about those outcomes.”
The Ethical Abyss of Facebook’s Inner Sanctum
Careless People is more than just a personal memoir—it is a damning indictment of the culture at Meta. Wynn-Williams describes a work environment where corporate priorities always superseded ethical concerns, even in extreme situations.
In 2014, while pregnant, she was sent to the heart of the Zika virus outbreak.
In 2016, she was involved in discussions when Diego Dzodan, a Facebook executive, was arrested in Brazil over WhatsApp’s refusal to hand over data in a drug-trafficking case. Zuckerberg, she recalls, wanted to post a “heartwarming” tribute about Dzodan’s loyalty to the company, despite advisors warning that it could harm his legal defense.
The 2016 U.S. election proved to be a watershed moment. In the immediate aftermath, Zuckerberg publicly dismissed claims that Facebook had played a role in Trump’s victory as “crazy.” But privately, he knew better.
According to Wynn-Williams, Facebook had embedded employees directly in the Trump campaign, offering them guidance on how to maximize the platform’s reach.
The Clinton campaign, in contrast, declined such assistance. Wynn-Williams suggests Zuckerberg was so struck by Facebook’s influence that he seriously considered running for president himself.
China: Zuckerberg’s White Whale
One of the book’s most startling revelations concerns Facebook’s long-standing efforts to break into the Chinese market. Zuckerberg’s obsession with China, Wynn-Williams writes, led Facebook to offer Chinese authorities tools to suppress viral content and censor online discourse.
Facebook reportedly gave detailed explanations of its facial-recognition technology to Chinese engineers, a move Wynn-Williams suggests was deeply troubling. She claims that Zuckerberg even went so far as to ask President Xi Jinping if he would name his unborn child—an honor Xi declined.
Despite Meta’s public statements that it does not operate in China, Wynn-Williams points out that the company still made £18 billion (approximately NZ$40 billion) last year from China-based advertisers.
Myanmar: The Deadliest Consequence of Facebook’s Negligence
Perhaps the most damning section of Careless People is Wynn-Williams’s examination of Facebook’s role in the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.
In 2018, UN investigators concluded that Facebook had been instrumental in spreading hate speech that fueled the slaughter of approximately 25,000 Rohingya Muslims by the Burmese military and nationalists.
“Facebook is so ubiquitous in Myanmar,” Wynn-Williams notes, “that many people think it is the entire internet.”
Although Meta later admitted that it was “too slow to act” in Myanmar, Wynn-Williams argues that the company’s failures stemmed from its relentless pursuit of growth at any cost. Her own experience watching the company’s decision-making led her to wonder whether there was any ethical line Facebook executives wouldn’t cross. Ultimately, she never found one.
A Must-Read for Anyone Concerned About Big Tech’s Power
With Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams cements herself as one of the most credible and damning whistleblowers to emerge from Facebook’s ranks. Unlike previous critics, she was in the room when the most consequential decisions were made.
Her book paints a chilling portrait of a company where ethical considerations were routinely sidelined in the pursuit of power, profit, and influence.
It is no wonder that Meta is working so hard to suppress this book. But, as Wynn-Williams’s memoir makes clear, the truth about Facebook’s unchecked power and moral failings cannot be contained. If you care about the future of digital democracy, social media, or corporate responsibility, Careless People is essential reading.
Buy Careless People on Amazon now.
Other titles from Amazon
Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter Hardcover, 2024 by Zoë Schiffer
An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination, 2022 by Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang
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