PLUS: Madison Square Garden kept a list of gay celebrities.
■ In this week's Backchannel: Yes, Sarah Wynn-Williams violated her deal to stay silent. But the power disparity bolsters the view that Meta is a heartless bully.
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‘It feels like Meta has open-ended control over my speech, livelihood, movements, and ability to associate with others’
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On May 31, Sarah Wynn-Williams took the stage as a panelist at the prestigious Hay Festival, alongside law professor Tim Wu and journalist Carole Cadwalladr. Before she said a word, she was greeted by cheers. She never did say a word, sitting in silence as the two other panelists discussed the evils of big tech. Nonetheless, her silent presence galvanized the audience, Wu later told me. ‘It’s the only time at a book panel that I’ve got a standing ovation.”
Wynn-Williams did not speak—could not speak—because of an interim ruling by an arbitrator that prevented her from promoting or even mentioning her best-selling book about her time at Meta, where she worked as a director of global public policy. In 2017, the company fired her, and with her lawyers she negotiated an agreement where the company would pay her $780,000. The agreement stipulated that she would refrain from making any “disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments” about Meta. In March 2025, Meta found out that Wynn-Williams was about to publish a memoir, Careless People, which was basically a 400-page disparaging comment. Meta immediately called for an emergency arbitration, and the interim ruling was that Wynn-Williams could not promote her book in any way. That ruling is still in effect, with a more sweeping arbitration hearing scheduled for October.
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