{"id":728331,"date":"2026-06-10T22:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728331\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T22:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:35:09","slug":"sales-of-meta-whistleblowers-memoir-soar-after-hay-festival-silencing-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/728331\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales of Meta whistleblower\u2019s memoir soar after Hay festival \u2018silencing\u2019 | Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sales of the whistleblowing memoir Careless People increased by more than 300% in the UK the week after its author was \u201csilenced\u201d<\/a> during an appearance at Hay festival following legal action by Meta, the subject of the book.<\/p>\n

Sarah Wynn-Williams \u2013 who between 2011 and 2017 served as the director of global public policy at what was then called Facebook<\/a> \u2013 sat on stage but did not speak during her hour-long appearance on 31 May on the advice of her lawyer. She appeared alongside the journalist Carole Cadwalladr and academic Tim Wu.<\/p>\n

The sales boost \u2013 304.5% week-on-week \u2013 has nudged the book, published last March, to the number one spot in the paperback nonfiction chart.<\/p>\n

Upon publication, Meta<\/a> obtained an order blocking Wynn-Williams from promoting her book, which accuses the company of a toxic internal culture and manipulative political influence. Meta has described the book as \u201ca mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives\u201d.<\/p>\n

In March, Meta filed a sanctions motion claiming that Wynn-Williams violates the order any time she makes an appearance in a place \u201cwhere she should know that her book is available for sale and her presence might draw attention to it\u201d, according to a letter from her lawyers sent to Hay festival<\/a> on 30 May. \u201cMeta also said attending the Hay festival would violate the order because the Hay festival\u2019s \u2018promotional materials include a direct link to Browse the Festival bookshop, \u2026 which offers Careless People for sale\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter asked Hay festival to \u201ctake all reasonable steps to ensure that Careless People is not sold at or through any festival bookshop, book-signing schedule, point-of-sale mechanism, or online link through which sales could be attributed to Ms Wynn-Williams\u2019s appearance at the festival\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pan Macmillan said that since publication, more than 140,000 copies of Careless People have been sold across all formats in the UK.<\/p>\n

Wynn-Williams\u2019 \u201ccourageous, silent appearance at Hay festival has clearly resonated with a huge number of people, who want to read her story and make up their own minds\u201d, said Mike Harpley, Wynn-Williams\u2019 editor and nonfiction publisher at Pan Macmillan.<\/p>\n

He added that the publisher is grateful to the public \u201cfor refusing to accept what amounts to corporate censorship. By using legal threats to restrict her appearance on a panel, Meta instead drew massive public attention to what is a brilliant, deeply important book\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the event, Wynn-Williams was unable to nod or shake her head. At the end, she received a standing ovation, and the event generated widespread press coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWynn-Williams was brave enough to get her book out there, despite the economic threats and damage inflicted,\u201d wrote her co-panellist Wu in the Guardian<\/a> on Tuesday. \u201cThe company is plainly seeking to make an example of her; to threaten financial ruin and warn off other would-be critics who may be sitting in the wings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sales of the whistleblowing memoir Careless People increased by more than 300% in the UK the week after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-728331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}