Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to ban this tell all memoir by a former Meta global policy director (Sarah Wynn-Williams) who held that position from 2011-2017, from being released (Meta at the time was still known as Facebook). They did win a legal battle by being granted a temporary injunction to block the promotion and distribution of the book though publisher Macmillan Books pledged to continue promoting it (Wynn-Williams is prohibited from promoting her own book). The judge in this case sided with Meta (that she violated a 2017 non-disparagement clause). The fact that Meta imposed this as a condition in the first place, tells you what you need to know about the company doing some stupid things (which starts from the ones at the top of company).
Nonetheless, the book has become a best seller (because all the injunction resulted in was bringing even more attention to the book). Rolling Stone pointed out “11 WTF moments” which isn’t surprising to those of us who have learned over time, the low level human garbage that makes up the companies executive “leadership” starting with Zuckerberg himself, extending to former COO Sheryl Sandberg (she left in 2022), and to president of global affairs, Joel Kaplan. There is a reason why I keep mentioning that many of these executives, operate in their own reality/bubble.
Kaplan is one of those responsible for allowing disinformation to proliferate on the platform. In 2016, he argued against Facebook publicly disclosing the extent of Russian influence operations on the platform. Wynn-Williams accusations against Kaplan isn’t flattering; she noted in her book that Kaplan pressured her to continue working during her maternity leave despite severe medical complications which included being hospitalized during childbirth, entering a coma, and later receiving criticism from Kaplan for being insufficiently responsive while on leave. Kaplan is another example of a Harvard graduate that turns out to be a terrible human being.
Sandberg’s behavior (as touched upon by the article) is just overall weird and highly inappropriate. In 2025, she was sanctioned for having deleted e-mails (violating a litigation hold) on her personal account related to the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal (those emails were relevant to the 2018 shareholder lawsuit. She is yet another Harvard graduate; you know, the ones who like to flaunt that credential around as a license for respecting them, but when it comes to remembering facts or knowing not to do certain things (like deleting relevant emails to a pending case), they reveal how they aren’t all that they make themselves out to be.
Another former early investor of Facebook (Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners) called out Sandberg for basically not practicing what she preached in her own book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (which highlights business leadership and development, issues with the lack of women in government and business leadership positions, and feminism) when it came to Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Sandberg as COO (normally considered 2nd in command), could’ve “leaned in” to leave her mark.
This is really just the tip of the iceberg though. Zuckerberg has never really been in touch with regular people and operates like an automaton. People can see that whenever he testifies in front of Congress (which he tries to play off as “one who does not interview well”). His whole “metaverse” thing (which unsurprisingly fell flat) and now his AI proclamations (another cheerleading pumper and dumper) highlights this trait. And the way Facebook’s shares were structured means no one can really hold him accountable because he holds the majority of the voting shares. I knew about this when I finally did put in a conditional offer leading into their IPO; investing in Facebook is something I regretted ever doing because Zuckerberg and his team were monetizing the company with what amounted to was a lot of “dirty” money.
This is one thing I have such a strong disdain for anything Meta now including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It’s unfortunate there are so many people who I know that blissfully use these platforms who could never full appreciate and understand how company executives view their use of the platform (a data harvesting operation with that being fed into their LLM’s – again, ignore what they say about respecting your privacy or opting out of anything related to your data being used to train their models because Meta has proven itself as one that finds ways to ignore all of that).
