The former Facebook global public policy director says Meta obtained a sweeping arbitration order that bars her from speaking publicly and has surveilled her movements
Photo by Laurent Hou/Hans Lucas /AFP via Getty Images
Sarah Wynn-Williams, the former Facebook $META global public policy director and author of the bestselling memoir "Careless People," filed suit against Meta Platforms Inc. on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, asking a federal judge to vacate an arbitration order that bars her from speaking about the company or promoting her book.
The complaint says that in March 2025, an emergency arbitration took place without Wynn-Williams present. The result was a ruling that stops her from making negative comments about the company, promoting her book, or repeating things she has already said. The complaint also says that Meta treats each book sale as a separate violation and is seeking penalties of more than $50,000 for each one, based on the non-disparagement terms in her 2017 severance agreement.
Wynn-Williams’s complaint also describes what she calls a wider pattern of corporate monitoring, according to The Wall Street Journal. She says Meta sent agents to events she attended in the U.K., such as the Hay Festival, where she sat on a panel but did not speak. Even though she stayed silent, the company responded formally. According to the complaint, Meta asked the arbitrator for sanctions, arguing that just sharing a stage with people the company sees as opponents broke her agreement.
The complaint argues the arbitration order is an unconstitutional prior restraint on her First Amendment rights and that her severance agreement is unenforceable, having been signed under duress. Roughly $310,000 in pre-approved expenses — among them travel costs incurred on behalf of Zuckerberg and other senior leaders — were withheld as leverage, the complaint alleges, and only a small portion of that sum was ever paid back.
The complaint also points to two public commitments Wynn-Williams says she relied upon: a 2018 Facebook announcement ending mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment claims, and language in Meta's 2022 proxy statement declaring that the company does not bind workers to agreements barring them from discussing what happens in the workplace. Treating those representations as a green light, she went on to submit whistleblower disclosures to the SEC and Justice Department and to publish her account of her time at the company.
"Careless People" alleges sexual harassment by Joel Kaplan, Meta's president of global affairs, who was Wynn-Williams's direct supervisor, as well as misconduct by former COO Sheryl Sandberg. Among its other disclosures, the memoir contends that Zuckerberg pursued a deal that would have handed Chinese government authorities access to the personal data of millions of users as the price of admission to the Chinese market, and that the company failed to deploy adequate resources to stop its platform from fueling the violence in Myanmar. Meta has denied the book's accuracy.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone issued a statement to the Courthouse News reading: "This former employee is trying to use the legal process to sell books, which an arbitrator already ruled broke the agreement she signed with the company when she accepted a large severance payment years ago."
Among the forms of relief sought in the complaint are a judicial ruling voiding the arbitration award, an injunction stopping any further arbitration proceedings, and a declaration that the severance agreement has no legal force. She is represented by Selendy Gay PLLC and Katz Banks Kumin LLP.
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