Author of explosive Meta memoir to star at US Senate hearing

Mark Zuckerberg (L), CEO of Meta, testifies during the US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis” in Washington, DC, on January 31, 2024. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

SAN FRANCISCO — The former Facebook employee behind a scathing book about parent company Meta will testify Wednesday before US senators keen to establish whether the social networking giant ever collaborated with the Chinese government.

Former global policy director Sarah Wynn-Williams has alleged the company explored the possibility of breaking into the lucrative Chinese market by appeasing Beijing’s government censors.

Meta communications director Andy Stone told AFP the company “ultimately decided not to go through with the ideas we’d explored.”

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The company’s family of apps is currently blocked in China.

Wynn-Williams’s testimony at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing will focus on Meta’s foreign relations moves and on what its executives have previously told Congress.

Of particular interest at Wednesday’s hearing, headed by Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, is whether Wynn-Williams contradicts what Meta co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has stated under oath during past congressional hearings.

Wynn-Williams’s book, “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism,” was released on March 11 and became a hot seller despite Meta winning an arbitration court order barring the author from promoting the work or making derogatory statements about the company.

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Her book recounts working at the tech titan from 2011 to 2017 and 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 global affairs team this year.

Meta 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.

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

“Careless People” ranks second on a New York Times bestseller list of nonfiction books, with another title highly critical of Meta close behind.

“The Anxious Generation,” which paints a dark picture of social media’s effect on children, is currently fourth on the Times bestseller list, a year after its release.