“The arbitration order has no impact on Macmillan. However, we are appalled by Meta’s tactics to silence our author through the use of a non-disparagement clause in a severance agreement,” Macmillan said in a statement Thursday through one of its imprints, Flatiron Books.
“To be clear, the arbitrator’s order makes no reference to the claims within Careless People,” the publisher said. “The book went through a thorough editing and vetting process, and we remain committed to publishing important books such as this.”
Meta says it has not directly asked the publisher to halt distribution of the book, although in a letter to the publisher on Friday, four days before the book’s release, a lawyer for Meta asked for a chance to request revisions.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone hailed the arbitration decision on Wednesday and disagreed with the publisher’s decision to publish the book in the first place.
“This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published,” he wrote on Threads.
“This urgent legal action was made necessary by Williams, who more than eight years after being terminated by the company, deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to shelves after waiting for eight years,” he said.
It was not immediately clear what further recourse Meta might have to try to halt “Careless People.”
The book lays out Wynn-Williams’ allegations of misconduct at the company, including claims of sexual harassment and what she says were incomplete statements to Congress about Facebook’s relationship with China. She and Meta agree that the company fired her in 2017, though they give different accounts of the circumstances.
Macmillan, founded in the United Kingdom, is one of the Big Five publishing houses, and it has a history of publishing lightning-rod books, including a memoir by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden and journalist Michael Wolff’s account of the first Trump White House. Macmillan CEO Jon Yaged has been a vocal critic of book bans passed by state governments.
Meta has said that the book contains “false accusations about our executives” and a “mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company.” Several current and former Meta employees have criticized the book on social media.
A spokesperson for Wynn-Williams declined to comment on the arbitration decision, which was only an interim finding and not a finding on the merits. Previously, a lawyer for Wynn-Williams said Meta was making false statements about her.
“The events that led to her departure from Meta are described in detail in the memoir, and while Meta’s statements are trying to mislead the public, the book speaks for itself,” Wynn-Williams’ lawyer said in a statement Tuesday.
The allegations by Wynn-Williams have drawn notice in Washington, including on the subject of China. According to the book and documents seen by NBC News, Facebook employees spoke with Chinese regulators about how a jointly run censorship system could work and about what Facebook needed to do to win approval to release its apps there. She alleges that the company gave incomplete responses to questions on the subject, including from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2018.
Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he wants to hear an explanation from Meta in response to Wynn-Williams’ book.
“We’ve seen over and over again that U.S. companies are willing to make alarming concessions in order to enter the Chinese market — but these new allegations of Meta directly engaging PRC consulates on content and offering to change policies on data even for users outside mainland China are concerning,” Warner said in a statement.
He said the allegations were unexpected to hear about a U.S.-owned platform.
“I’m disappointed to hear this, particularly in light of Meta’s assurances to Congress to the contrary and I look forward to hearing their explanation,” he said.
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