I immediately reserved this book from my local library when I spotted they had it a while back and it was in such demand that it took a few months for me to get hold of it and immediately had eight reservations once I did. Clearly, people are interested in this book. Given Facebook took legal action against the author preventing her from promoting it, this seems rather surprising, but I suspect their tactic backfired and has actually resulted in a lot of intrigue. Why are Facebook trying to cover up what Sarah Wynn-Williams is writing about? Let’s find out!

About the author

Sarah Wynn-Williams is originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, and tells us in the book (in rather horrifying detail) about how she was attacked by a shark when she was just 13 years old. Her parents don’t believe how bad her injuries are and as a result, she almost dies, but she assures us that instead of this being a bad thing, this has given her immense drive, a desire to make a difference and the ability to pick herself back up after any difficult experiences. She certainly seems to know how to keep going in extremely adverse circumstances in which most of us would have waved a white flag and given up - I know I would have.

She studied Law at University and worked at the UN afterwards, but got frustrated at the fact that the UN was mostly talk and very little action, so she wanted to find somewhere more impactful. Wynn-Williams started working at Facebook in 2011 after convincing them that they needed her (they just didn’t know it yet) and was fired in 2017 for "poor performance and toxic behavior", though it would seem that she was actually fired for not keeping quiet about the abuse she had experienced while working there. She now works on AI policy and talks in the book specifically about AI-powered weapons (a terrifying thought), so it seems like her experience at Facebook hasn’t put her off trying to do good in the world.

The TL;DR

NOTE: This section contains spoilers, so don’t read it if that bothers you!

Wynn-Williams’ firsthand account of her journey at Facebook is wild. Even the way she was hired was out of the ordinary - she just decided she really wanted to work there as a “diplomat” because “Facebook is this global political force that is going to change the internet and the world, and these things matter” and just kept pitching them a role that didn’t exist yet until they gave in and hired her. Her initial enthusiasm and optimism really shines through on the page - you don’t just keep trying to get a non-existent job for over a year unless you’re really fired up about the idea and initially, it seems like she might actually be able to make a difference.

Unfortunately, all is not as it seems at Facebook and Wynn-Williams quickly discovers that she is surrounded not by benevolent do-gooders, but business folks who just want to make money. The company’s main priority is growth, not changing the world for the better, and this results in some pretty shady dealings. Facebook actively courts China, breaking its own well-established rules to try and get the government to allow the Chinese people to access the app, which understandably makes Wynn-Williams uncomfortable but her bosses imply she’s strange for not wanting this. Facebook choose to overlook a lot of fake news and hate speech that incites violence and sways elections in various countries - when it comes to content, they simply choose to look the other way as long as they get to make plenty of money. As the book goes on, Facebook becomes more and more politically powerful, which is exactly what Wynn-Williams foresaw, except I’m betting she didn’t think they’d land on the side they did.

There are some accounts of awful behaviour and gaffs from Mark Zuckerberg that are very cringy to read. He comes across as a spoilt nerdy child who just does what he wants and expects to get away with it. He holds up presidents from countries like Brazil and Colombia for ridiculous reasons like refusing to meet with anyone before 12pm. Understandably, these people do not react positively to being messed around and Facebook often doesn’t get its way just because Zuckerberg refuses to give an inch. Maybe that’s a good thing, who knows - perhaps they would have even more power now if he’d had a spare pair of trousers.

Sheryl Sandberg doesn’t come across well either - she is prone to critical outbursts and abuses of power. In her book Lean In, Sandberg says it’s very tough to be a woman in business and yet goes on to use her own female staff members at Facebook to promote her book for free. And then there’s the shocking story of a heavily pregnant Wynn-Williams being told to “come to bed” by Sandberg on a long haul flight, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. Wynn-Williams is obviously uncomfortable and refuses, so Sandberg ices her out as punishment.

Initially, Wynn-Williams is keen and willing to get stuck in and embrace the American work culture - i.e. work every hour available - but as the book goes on she starts to question things a bit more, especially as her husband gets wind of some of the ridiculous things she is being asked to do. Facebook has her fly out to remote and dangerous countries to go talk to government officials, just because they are afraid of being blocked and losing users. She has a difficult second pregnancy and nobody at Facebook cares - they’re getting her to work during maternity leave while she is haemorrhaging and they tell her she wasn’t available enough upon her return, which is unsurprising given she was in a coma for part of it!

By far the worst account is of her manager, Joel Kaplan, who starts off with some uncomfortable questions that could be dismissed as oddness, but there is a consistent pattern and it makes Wynn-Williams uncomfortable, so she threatens to report him. She gets told that if she keeps quiet, the behaviour will stop. Clearly, this doesn’t work because at a company party, his behaviour escalates and culminates in lewd comments and non-consensual grinding on the dance floor. Realising that things will never stop and only get worse from here, Wynn-Williams reports this to HR and promptly gets fired. She is told that there is no proof of anything she is reporting and that Kaplan has done nothing wrong. Sadly, this is not uncommon for women who report sexual abuse in the workplace.

So yes, you can see why Facebook might want to cover this up. I for one am glad that the publisher decided to go ahead and release the book anyway.

My thoughts

This book is shocking. Some of it I knew - like Facebook’s main aim being exponential growth - but I didn’t quite appreciate at what cost. A long chapter near the end of the book goes into how Facebook was instrumental in the unrest in Myanmar and how little leadership did to help, which was quite honestly shocking to me. How any company can ignore the fact that their product is actively causing violence is beyond me, but that appears to be where we’re at. The internet has gone from being a place for slightly nerdy outsiders to hang out to a dark place that shifts power dynamics and causes chaos all in the name of the mighty dollar.

Facebook isn’t the only company doing this - Big Tech in general has gone worryingly dark and appears to be experiencing a bit of a backlash as a result. This book along with Enshittification by Cory Doctorow are both worth a read. They will quickly disabuse you of any remaining notions that these companies are benevolent and have our best interests at heart. Big Tech is fuelled by capitalism taken to the absolute limit and takes the phrase “move fast and break things” to the extreme. There is rampant toxicity, egoism and enablement of bad behaviour going on behind closed doors and it’s so important for stories like this to get out. Something needs to change and awareness is the first step.

My rating

★★★★★★★☆☆☆

I would give this book a 7 out of 10 - it’s a well written, compelling story that will leave you shocked and appalled. If you want to anger up your blood and despair at humanity, this is a good book for that. In spite of its dark content, I would highly recommend you give it a read. Though I do need to go read a cosy fantasy novel now…

Reserve Careless People from your local library like me, or you can buy it from bookshop.org or your local bookseller. It is also available digitally on Kobo and you can even listen to it read out by the author on libro.fm. I don’t use Amazon so will not post links to it here, though I’m sure they sell it too.