Meta is scrambling to dam the discharge of an explosive tell-all memoir that alleges sordid misdeeds by high brass – together with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and ex-operating chief Sheryl Sandberg.
The social media big gained an emergency ruling at an arbitration listening to in Los Angeles on Wednesday to quickly halt promotion of “Careless People,” written by Sarah Wynn-Williams, Fb’s former director of public coverage. Wynn-Williams has reportedly filed a whistleblower criticism with the SEC.
The guide claims that Sandberg as soon as spent $13,000 on lingerie for herself and a younger feminine assistant who she later invited to “come to bed” on a personal flight residence from Europe. Wynn-Williams additionally accused high government Joel Kaplan of sexual harassment and Zuckerberg of serving to China to develop censorship instruments in a failed bid to get his social media apps unblocked within the nation.
Emergency arbitrator Nicolas Gowen of the American Arbitration Affiliation cited with Meta’s argument that it confronted “immediate and irreparable loss” with out aid. He additionally discovered that Meta had “established a likelihood of success on the merits of its contractual non-disparagement claim” in opposition to Wynn-Williams.
The proceedings passed off as a result of Wynn-Williams agreed to an arbitration clause in her severance settlement with Fb, in accordance with the submitting. Wynn-Williams labored at Fb for six years and left in 2017, earlier than it was renamed to Meta.
Within the ruling, Wynn-Williams was ordered to cease additional promotion of the guide or making any disparaging remarks about Meta or its workers and, to the extent inside her management, to cease additional distribution of “Careless People.”
Guide writer Macmillan, which revealed the memoir by its imprint Flatiron Books, attended the listening to and argued it was not topic to Wynn-Williams’ arbitration settlement with Meta. The arbitrator’s ruling didn’t seem to order any restrictions on the writer.
As of Thursday morning, main retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble have been nonetheless promoting the guide on-line.
The corporate has mentioned Wynn-Williams was fired attributable to “poor performance and toxic behavior.”
“This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn-Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published,” Meta spokesman Andy Stone wrote in a Threads publish alongside a duplicate of the arbitration court docket’s resolution.
Stone asserted that Wynn-Williams had “deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to the shelves after waiting for eight years.”
The Meta spokesman mentioned in a earlier assertion that an “investigation at the time determined she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment” and that Wynn-Williams was “paid by anti-Facebook activists.”
Macmillian didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon the ruling.
Within the guide, Wynn-Williams alleged that Kaplan – who at the moment serves as Meta’s international head of public coverage – had made her uncomfortable together with his habits.
Wynn-Williams claimed that Kaplan as soon as pressed himself in opposition to her on the dance ground at an organization occasion and commented that she seemed “sultry” whereas making unwelcome remarks about her husband.
Later, Kaplan allegedly pestered Wynn-Williams by e-mail to attend weekly videoconferences as she recovered from a near-fatal complication in the course of the beginning of her second baby.
Kaplan was later cleared of wrongdoing following an organization investigation.
In the meantime, Sarah Feinberg, a former Meta worker, got here to the protection of Kaplan and different executives in a prolonged Threads publish responding to the guide’s claims.
“I worked with Joel Kaplan throughout my years at Facebook – he was one of my closest colleagues – and I have never observed him be anything other than professional, thoughtful, strategic and fair,” Feinberg wrote.
