What is the shocking content of 'Careless People,' a book by a former employee that clearly shows how corrupt Facebook is inside?
Pluralistic: Sarah Wynn-Williams's 'Careless People' (23 Apr 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/23/zuckerstreisand/
'I have friends who held positions at Facebook who believed they could make a difference, three of whom are actually featured in Wynne-Williams's tell-all book, so I know all too well what a nightmare Facebook is as a company,' Doctorow wrote.
However, Wynne-Williams was apparently closer to three key figures in Facebook's upper echelons, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Joel Kaplan, than he was to those around Doctorow. Doctorow had always had a dislike for these three people because of their public statements and actions, but after reading Wynne-Williams's book, he came to see them as 'beyond despicable.'
Zuckerberg was like a little boy, and when his subordinates played board games with him, they would deliberately play in a way that made Zuckerberg win. Wynne-Williams also wrote in her book that she was accused of 'cheating' when she was playing Ticket to Ride on a private jet.
Sandberg had asked for the right to buy a kidney from someone in Mexico in case her child ever needed one.
Doctorow called Kaplan 'incredibly stupid and incredibly stupid.' Careless People tells the story of when Wynne-Williams gave Zuckerberg the opportunity to speak at the United Nations General Assembly. In the speech, Zuckerberg promised that Facebook would provide internet access to refugees around the world, but this was a quibble from Zuckerberg's mouth. Facebook then began to explore ways to make Zuckerberg's quibble come true, but Kaplan stepped in and argued that it was no good to provide free internet to refugees, and that they should sell internet access to them instead. In the end, Kaplan emailed the project team, saying, 'I realized that refugees have no money,' and the project stalled.
The story of how Wyn-Williams got involved with Facebook's key figures is very strange, but 'rather fascinating,' Doctorow writes. As a young man, Wyn-Williams worked as a diplomat in the New Zealand diplomatic corps. He became fascinated with Facebook's global political and social potential, and was recruited by Facebook's global team to work on a project to develop a partnership strategy with government agencies around the world.
However, at that time, there was no such position at Facebook. Although Facebook had been lobbying the US government, it was apparently very uninterested in engaging in this kind of activity with the world as a whole, especially with other governments. So Wyn-Williams repeatedly sent requests to relevant executives and also lobbied friends of friends, arguing that a negotiating role with government agencies should be created.
At that time,
Early in his career at Facebook, Wyn-Williams was sent to Myanmar, where the military government had ordered Facebook to be blocked, and was nearly kidnapped and imprisoned by members of the Ministry of Communications. When Wyn-Williams arranged an official visit for New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Zuckerberg requested that he take a photo with him. Zuckerberg, unaware that Key was standing right in front of him, scolded Wyn-Williams, telling him to 'meet stupid politicians.'
What's certain is that Facebook just couldn't care less about the rest of the world outside the U.S. Wynne-Williams writes that this is 'a case of old-fashioned provincialism,' a tendency that Facebook executives hold dear.
After Facebook conquered the United States, Zuckerberg finally turned his attention to the world. At this time, it suddenly became urgent to acquire users in countries other than the United States, and Wynne-Williams changed overnight from 'the only outlier talking about the global market' to 'an important asset pursuing the company's top priorities.' Regarding the cause of this change, Wynne-Williams explains that it was 'CEO Zuckerberg's personality,' that is, his tendency to always want to dominate.
Facebook's dominance of the U.S. market has prompted the company to focus on international customers, but as growth there slows, Wynne-Williams has long called for the company to pay more attention to political developments abroad, drawing criticism.
However, Wynne-Williams pointed out that the reason Facebook's growth has halted is due to the 'carelessness' of CEO Zuckerberg and other company executives.
In fact, Zuckerberg points out that he misses out on business opportunities every day by refusing to give detailed explanations about products and services, forgetting the little information he is given, and ruining important meetings because he refuses to get up before noon.
During her visit to Davos, Sandberg undermined Facebook's business with her self
Wynne-Williams also points out that Kaplan is like the embodiment of Green Day 's ' American Idiot ' and has little understanding of the existence of foreigners.
In his book Careless People, Wynne-Williams writes that the narrow-mindedness, shortsightedness and arrogance of Facebook executives have repeatedly led to businesses failing on the brink of success.
In addition, Wyn-Williams revealed that Kaplan subjected her to relentless sexual harassment and ordered her to 'just keep quiet and endure it' by everyone in a position to stop it. After giving birth to her second child, Wyn-Williams went into a coma due to hemorrhagic shock. After that, Kaplan gave Wyn-Williams a low performance rating because she did not respond to Kaplan's emails and messages in the intensive care unit. Wyn-Williams said that Kaplan also asked her personal questions about breastfeeding, video-called her from her bed, and pressured her to sleep next to him in the bedroom of a private jet.
Wynne-Williams also revealed that Facebook was building a far-reaching censorship and surveillance system for the Chinese government to use against Facebook users in China and around the world. Facebook has pledged to set up a cache of Facebook content from around the world in China, allowing the Chinese government to monitor all Facebook activity around the world. This implies that the Chinese government could eavesdrop on private communications and censor content for users outside of China.
Despite this, Facebook is not allowed any access to China, but the Chinese government could use the surveillance tools that Facebook has built for China to attack independence movements, press freedom, and dissident uprisings in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Careless People also documents a number of other scandals, including the fact that Facebook executives have lied to courts, Congress, the United Nations, and the press.
In addition, 'Careless People: A story of where I used to work' is the number one best-seller in the 'Social Media for Business' category of Amazon.co.jp's foreign books, and the paperback can be purchased for 2,975 yen including tax.
Amazon | Careless People: A story of where I used to work | Wynn-Williams, Sarah | Communication & Media Studies
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