If you’ve spent any time scrolling through the news lately, you probably think you know the Facebook story. We’ve seen the congressional hearings. We've seen the documentaries. But honestly, nothing really prepares you for the visceral, messy, and sometimes flat-out weird reality Sarah Wynn-Williams describes in her memoir. It is a book that Meta tried very hard to stop you from reading.
The book is titled Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.
When it hit shelves in March 2025, it didn't just ruffle feathers; it set the whole coop on fire. Sarah wasn’t just some random mid-level employee. She was a former New Zealand diplomat and international lawyer who ended up as the Director of Global Public Policy at Facebook. She was in the room—or more accurately, on the private jet—where the big decisions happened.
Why Careless People is making everyone so uncomfortable
The title itself is a nod to The Great Gatsby, referencing those who "smash up things and creatures and then retreat back into their money." It’s a brutal comparison. Wynn-Williams paints a picture of a leadership team that wasn’t just "moving fast and breaking things" as a cute motto, but as a lifestyle that left actual bodies in its wake.
Meta’s legal team went into overdrive to suppress this. They tried to enforce non-disparagement agreements and even secured an arbitrator’s order at one point to keep her from talking about it.
Naturally, that just made people want to read it more.
One of the most jarring parts of the book isn't just the global politics—it's the personal pettiness. She describes playing board games with Mark Zuckerberg on a private jet. When she won, he allegedly accused her of cheating. It sounds like a scene from a movie, but for Sarah, this was just a Tuesday.
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The high cost of "leaning in"
We’ve all heard Sheryl Sandberg’s "Lean In" philosophy. In Careless People, that philosophy gets a much darker rewrite. Sarah recounts being in the hospital, literally in labor, while being expected to email talking points and stay available for work.
It gets worse.
There are accounts of being rushed back from maternity leave after a traumatic birth that left her in a temporary coma. According to the book, the "pro-woman" branding of the company didn't actually translate to the treatment of the women working there. She describes a "bro code" culture that protected senior men while gaslighting women who raised concerns.
Honestly, the section on Joel Kaplan is hard to read. Sarah alleges she was sexually harassed by her supervisor and that her reports were met with "withdraw the complaint" or simple dismissal. It’s a far cry from the polished, progressive image the company tries to project to the world.
Myanmar, China, and the "Lethal Carelessness"
If the office politics are messy, the global impact Sarah describes is terrifying. She was the one sent to Myanmar when the military junta was using the platform to incite genocide against the Rohingya.
She writes that the company had only two Burmese-speaking moderators for the entire country.
Two.
And they were based in Dublin.
When she raised the alarm that one of those moderators might actually be working with the junta, she claims she was basically told to sit down because "Myanmar isn't a priority country."
Then there’s the China situation. The book details how Zuckerberg allegedly wanted into the Chinese market so badly that the company developed censorship tools specifically to appease the CCP. They even discussed giving the Chinese government access to user data—including users in Hong Kong. While they eventually backed off, the fact that they built the tech in the first place is a massive "yikes" for anyone who cares about digital privacy.
What users are actually asking about the Sarah Wynn Williams book
Most people searching for this book are trying to figure out if it's just another "disgruntled employee" rant or a genuine whistleblower account.
Based on the evidence Sarah provides—and the sheer amount of money Meta spent trying to kill the book—it feels a lot more like the latter. She isn't just complaining about her boss; she's documenting a systemic failure of ethics.
She highlights how Facebook’s algorithm was literally designed to reward divisiveness. Why? Because angry people click more. And more clicks mean more ad revenue.
It’s a simple, cold math that ignores the fact that this "divisiveness" often leads to real-world violence.
Actionable insights from the pages of Careless People
If you're reading this book, or even just following the fallout, there are a few things you can actually do to protect yourself and your data:
- Review your "Off-Facebook Activity": Go into your settings and look at what businesses are sending your data to Meta. You can disconnect this, and you probably should.
- Diversify your news intake: The book explains exactly how the algorithm creates echo chambers. Force yourself to look at sources outside of social media.
- Support tech regulation: Sarah now works in AI policy. She argues that we can't trust these companies to "self-regulate." Support legislation like the Digital Services Act (DSA) that demands transparency.
The book basically proves that for the people at the top, we aren't customers. We’re the product, and our attention is the currency.
Sarah’s story is a reminder that idealism is easy to lose when there’s a billion dollars on the table. She started as a true believer who thought social media could save the world. She ended up as a whistleblower who realized the "monsters" weren't just the people using the platform, but often the ones who built it.
If you want a cozy read about the wonders of technology, this isn't it. But if you want to know how the sausage is actually made in Silicon Valley—and who gets ground up in the process—Careless People is the only book you need to read this year. It's a sharp, uncomfortable mirror held up to the screens we stare at for eight hours a day.
To truly understand the impact of Sarah's work, it is worth looking into the current tech policy debates regarding AI, as many of the "careless" patterns she identified at Facebook are currently repeating in the race to dominate artificial intelligence. Watching for updates on the legal battles Meta is still fighting over this memoir will also give you a clear view of how far big tech will go to protect its image.