{"id":151004,"date":"2025-09-21T10:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T10:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/151004\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T10:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T10:49:07","slug":"meta-expose-author-faces-bankruptcy-after-ban-on-criticising-company-meta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/151004\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta expos\u00e9 author faces bankruptcy after ban on criticising company | Meta"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Meta<\/a> executive who wrote an explosive expos\u00e9 making allegations about the social media company\u2019s dealings with China and its treatment of teenagers is said to be \u201con the verge of bankruptcy\u201d after publishing the book.<\/p>\n

An MP has claimed in parliament that Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s company was trying to \u201csilence and punish\u201d Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former director of global public policy at Meta\u2019s precursor, Facebook<\/a>, after her decision to speak out about her time at the company.<\/p>\n

Louise Haigh, the former Labour transport secretary, said Wynn-Williams was facing a fine of $50,000 (\u00a337,000) every time she breached an order secured by Meta<\/a> preventing her from talking disparagingly about the company.<\/p>\n

Wynn-Williams made a series of claims about the social media company\u2019s behaviour and culture in her book Careless People, published this year. It also contained allegations of sexual harassment denied by the company. It states she was fired for \u201cpoor performance and toxic behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the former diplomat was barred from publicising the memoir after Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, secured a ruling preventing her from doing so. She subsequently appeared before a US Senate judiciary subcommittee, in which she said Meta worked \u201chand in glove\u201d with Beijing over censorship tools \u2013 something the company has denied.<\/p>\n

Pan Macmillan, which published the memoir, said it had sold more than 150,000 copies across all formats. The book was also named in The Sunday Times\u2018 bestselling hardbacks of 2025 so far. The paperback edition is due to be published early next year.<\/p>\n

Haigh highlighted Wynn-Williams\u2019s case in the House of Commons during a debate about employment rights on Monday. She said Wynn-Williams\u2019s decision to speak out had plunged her into financial peril.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite previous public statements that Meta no longer uses NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] in cases of sexual harassment \u2013 which Sarah has repeatedly alleged \u2013 she is being pushed to financial ruin through the arbitration system in the UK, as Meta seeks to silence and punish her for speaking out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeta has served a gagging order on Sarah and is attempting to fine her $50,000 for every breach of that order. She is on the verge of bankruptcy. I am sure that the whole house and the government will stand with Sarah as we pass this legislation to ensure that whistleblowers and those with the moral courage to speak out are always protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is understood that the $50,000 figure represents the damages Wynn-Williams has to pay for material breaches of the separation agreement she signed when she left Meta in 2017. Meta has emphasised that Wynn-Williams entered into the non-disparagement agreement voluntarily as part of her departure.<\/p>\n

Meta said that to date, Wynn-Williams had not been forced to make any payments under the agreement.<\/p>\n

The company did not wish to comment on Haigh\u2019s intervention. It has previously said that Wynn-Williams\u2019s Senate testimony was \u201cdivorced from reality and riddled with false claims\u201d about China and the company\u2019s treatment of teenagers.<\/p>\n

Meta has described the book as a \u201cmix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives\u201d. It has said she was fired for \u201cpoor performance and toxic behaviour\u201d and that an investigation concluded she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.<\/p>\n

It said the ruling preventing her from publicising the memoir confirmed the \u201cfalse and defamatory book should never have been published\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ruling stated Wynn-Williams should stop promoting the book and, to the extent she could, stop further publication. It did not order any action by Pan Macmillan.<\/p>\n

Wynn-Williams has not spoken in public since appearing at the Senate hearing in April. In a written statement this month, she said she was grateful that the US Senate was continuing to investigate Meta\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could say more,\u201d she said. \u201cI urge other tech employees and those who are thinking of whistleblowing to share what they know before more children are harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her lawyer confirmed Wynn-Williams \u201cremains silenced about the very matters Congress is investigating, despite clear and unanimous voices from Congress calling on Meta to end their arbitration proceedings which threaten to bankrupt her\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Meta executive who wrote an explosive expos\u00e9 making allegations about the social media company\u2019s dealings with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-151004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}