Facebook whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams is in the spotlight after her crusading memoir ‘Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism’ caught public eye. Releasing on Tuesday, the memoir gives an insider account of Meta’s corporate culture. It exposes Meta’s culture and its role in political advertising during the 2016 Trump campaign.
The book has set Silicon Valley abuzz with controversy even before its release as it brings forth exclusive details about the inner workings of one of the world’s most influential tech.
‘Careless People’ explores the writer’s six years with the tech giant until being finally fired ahead of Facebook’s rebranding as Meta. As per Sarah Wynn-Williams’ account, Mark Zuckerberg and company leaders attempted to silence her voice before her abrupt departure. The book critiques the company’s influence on elections and practices that are deemed unethical.
Money’s role in US elections
“I’m astounded at the role money plays in elections in the US,” Sarah Wynn-Williams wrote in her memoir, reflecting on the time Trump campaign prepared with political advertisements and targeted misinformation from which Facebook derived massive profits. To help Donald Trump win 2016 Presidential elections, Facebook allegedly included staff in Donald Trump’s campaign “alongside Trump campaign programmers, ad copywriters, media buyers, network engineers, and data scientists”, Sarah Wynn-Williams said.
The Meta employee in her account described Mark Zuckerberg’s speeches as sounding “like what a kid thinks a president sounds like,” The Guardian reported citing excerpts. Noting the daunting experience, she wrote, “I’m also against exporting this value system. But Facebook is effectively bringing this in globally by stealth.”
It is important to note that Mark Zuckerberg complained that corporate culture has become too “neutered” and needs a new injection of “masculine energy” during recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Notably, to discuss AI with Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg visited the White House in February.
Sarah Wynn-Williams reportedly left Facebook in 2018 to work on “unofficial negotiations between the US and China on AI weapons”.
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