Facebook has successfully withdrawn a book from sale, written by a former executive of the company. The work makes explosive revelations about the behind-the-scenes workings of the world's most powerful social network – while splashing his boss Mark Zuckerberg.
While Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was relaxing moderation on his social networks a few weeks ago under the guise of “freedom of expression”, Meta has just obtained the withdrawal of a book from sale. The work, Careless People, is the work of Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Meta executive who, according to our colleagues at Engadget, was quite high up in the company. At least before her dismissal in 2017.
She makes shocking revelations about the behind-the-scenes of several major decisions, as well as the “inappropriate” attitude of certain executives. All while showing Mark Zuckerberg in a rather unflattering light. We learn, for example, that Meta has developed a censorship tool to support its expansion strategy in China about ten years ago.
Why Meta is withdrawing this book from sale
Or the sometimes embarrassing behavior of Mark Zuckerberg during meetings with heads of state. So many stories that clearly did not please the company at all. Meta believes that the withdrawal from sale was “necessary”, because of the attitude of the author who “hid deliberately concealed the existence of his free software project and avoided industry-standard fact-checking to get his book out there faster, after waiting 8 years to do so.
The firm considers the book's content “defamatory” and claims it contains nothing but “old stories”. The book's publisher, Flatiron Books, denounces “Meta's tactics to silence the author”. And to add: “Let me be clear, the arbitration decision makes no reference to the claims contained in Careless People […] which has gone through intense editing and validation processes”.
Flatiron Books concludes: “We remain committed to publishing important books like this one. We will continue to support and promote it.”At this time, it is not entirely clear whether the removal from shelves is final or not. The decision really only has an impact in the United States, leaving the possibility of distributing the work in other countries.
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