The explosive insider account of former META officials sold 60,000 copies in its first week, reaching the top 10 bestseller list on Amazon.com. Social Media Giant Trust the book.
Released last week Flatiron booksMacMillan imprint, Sarah Wynn Williams' “The Careless People” claims cruel and intrusive behavior by Mark Zuckerberg, Joel Kaplan, Sheryl Sandberg and other executives, explaining Zuckerberg's efforts to win favor with Chinese officials.
Meta retorted that Wynn-Williams, the former director of Global Public Policy who left Facebook in 2017, had breached his retirement agreement and wrote a book full of inaccuracies.
According to Flatiron, sales for the first week include print audio and digital editions. On Wednesday, “The Careless People” ranked third on Amazon.
In response to complaints filed by Meta, emergency arbitrator Nicholas A. Gowen last week held that Wynn Williams was promoting the book or making more “critical claims” about her former employer. In his ruling, Gowen wrote that Meta “established the potential for success on the merits of contractual non-discrimination claims” against Wynn-Williams. Flatiron can continue to publicly promote “careless people.”
A statement from Meta praised the arbitrator's decision, saying, “The book of falsehood and defamation by Sarah Wynn Williams should never have been published.” Otherwise, meta is called “careless people.”
Flatiron also issued a statement saying that he was “appealing to Meta's tactics to silence the author using non-discrimination clauses in his retirement agreement.” The publisher added that the arbitrator had not addressed the Wynn-Williams allegations.
“This book goes through a thorough editing and review process and remains committed to publishing such an important book. We will absolutely support and promote it,” the statement reads.
Flatiron did not publish the book until a few days before its release. Meta's responses include a media outlet over the press planning, including a query from the Associated Press. Washington Post critic Ron Charles wrote last week that he received repeated messages from Meta.
“I have never done this with me in 27 years since I reviewed and edited the book section of a newspaper,” he pointed out.
