This photograph representation created Jan. 7, 2025, displays a picture of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and a picture of the Meta emblem.
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Meta is looking for to block the promotion of a unused memoir via a former staffer that paints the social media corporate in an unflattering brightness, together with allegations of sexual harassment via the corporate’s coverage .
An disaster arbitrator dominated Thursday that Sarah Wynn-Williams is illegal from selling “Careless People,” her keep that was once excused Tuesday via Flatiron Books, an imprint of writer Macmillan Books.
The memoir chronicles Wynn-Williams’ tenure at Fb from 2011 thru 2017. All through that generation, she become a high-level worker who interacted with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, then-COO Sheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan, the corporate’s tide coverage . Within the keep, Wynn-Williams alleges that Kaplan made plenty of beside the point feedback to her, which she later reported to the corporate as sexual harassment.
“This is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” a Meta spokesperson up to now mentioned about each her keep and criticism.
Wynn-Williams additionally main points in her keep the corporate’s numerous makes an attempt to go into the Chinese language marketplace, together with construction gear that might censor content material to soothe the Chinese language Communist Celebration. Wynn-Williams addressed a few of these China-specific claims in a whistleblower criticism that she filed in April with the Securities and Trade Fee, NBC Information reported.
The disaster arbitrator dominated in partiality of Meta upcoming observing a podcast look of Wynn-Williams through which she mentioned her memoir and her allegations that Meta was once making an attempt to “shut this book down.”
“The Emergency Arbitrator finds that, after reviewing the briefs and hearing oral argument, (Meta) has established a likelihood of success on the merits of its contractual non-disparagement claim against Respondent Wynn-Williams, and that immediate and irreparable loss will result in the absence of emergency relief,” the filing said.
Moreover, the arbitrator dominated that such a lot as Wynn-Williams can regulate, she is illegal from additional publishing or distributing the keep and from additional disparaging Meta and its officials or repeating earlier disparaging remarks. The arbitrator additionally dominated that Wynn-Williams is to retract her earlier disparaging remarks.
The corporate has up to now pushed aside Wynn-Williams’ claims as “out-of-date” and mentioned that she was once fired for “poor performance and toxic behavior.”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone shared the disaster arbitrator’s ruling in a post on Threads, pronouncing that it “affirms that Sarah Wynn Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published.”
“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,” Stone mentioned.
Meta alleged that Wynn-Williams violated the non-disparagement phrases of her September 2017 severance oath, to bring about the corporate submitting an disaster movement on Friday. The disaster arbitrator later performed a phone listening to involving felony representatives of Meta and Macmillan Books, however no longer Wynn-Williams who didn’t seem despite the fact that she was once given understand, the submitting mentioned.
Wynn-Williams, Flatiron Books and Macmillan Books didn’t reply to needs for remark.
