@wendinoakland@beige.partyFinished Careless People last night. It’s a really compelling read, continually surprising and horrifying. The author is certainly complicit by her involvement and naïveté, but at least she gave us this view from the inside. Definitely recommend.
#CarelessPeople #Facebook #deleteFacebook #deleteMeta #LeaveMeta #Meta
My “not a book review” of Careless People – the book Facebook doesn’t want you to read.
With highlights on Ireland’s complicity and the lengths people farmers (as I call them) will go to to appease authoritarian regimes like China.
https://ar.al/2025/03/21/careless-people/
It’s clear from this that Ireland should be stripped of the authority to enforce GDPR and, really, people farmers – and the business model of people farming in general – should be banned in the EU.
(Don’t hold your breaths.)
#Facebook #books #CarelessPeople #BarbraStreisand
'Careless People has debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. It’s also spent much of the week in the number three position on Amazon’s bestseller list. That’s despite the fact that Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former policy director at Facebook, has been barred from promoting or publicly discussing the book following legal action by Meta.'
You have to love the savage efficiency of the Streisand effect: Sarah Wynn-Williams' Facebook exposé #CarelessPeople skyrocketed to the top of the NYTimes Bestseller List on its debut week. It's the second most purchased book on Amazon (US) as well.
I'm about halfway through the book and I wish I could be in a book club to discuss it. The anecdotes about Facebook's top leaders and their ineptitude / selfishness are so delicious. Fair and fierce attacks, in beautiful prose.
Sarah Wynn-Williams survived a shark attack at 13 that almost killed her. Her sister survived a collapsed building in the Christchurch 'quakes. Zuck, do you think someone from this family fears a Meta lawsuit when you and your team are snowflakes compared to what they've already encountered? #CarelessPeople #book #law
The Streisand Effect is in full force now with "Careless People," Sarah Wynn Williams' memoir about her time as director of global public policy at Facebook — the book is now at No. 3 on Amazon's bestsellers list. Former colleague Katie Harbath, who was Facebook's public policy director for global elections, recalls things differently to Wynn Williams, and says the book is "riddled with factual inaccuracies and exaggerations." Here's her post, "Careless People is Careless," on her Anchor Change Substack. "For those who didn’t work at the company or with Sarah, this book is a page-turner," she says. "Meta choosing to seek arbitration to block Sarah’s ability to promote it helps feed the intrigue for what is in it. (It is also ironic for Meta to be complaining about her not fact-checking the book when they just got rid of their fact-checking program.)"
#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #CarelessPeople #SarahWynnWilliams #StreisandEffect #Meta #Facebook
Excerpt from #CarelessPeople 
« When we start to run into politicians who put up roadblocks to our expansion, the growth team is quick to suggest that we “juice” the algorithm to help them bolster their Facebook presence. The way they put that? “Let’s dial up the algorithm to give politicians some love.” »
BTW Javi Olivan, who led the growth team at the time, has been elevated to the role of Meta’s COO (since the departure of Sheryl Sandberg).
Finished this book, and probably not a spoiler alert, Mark, Sheryl, Joel, and Elliot, the main management of Facebook, are extraordinarily bad people.
The Myanmar chapter sheds more on how Facebook allowed and encouraged genocide and mass rape. This chapter alone should be what you should read if you still use anything Facebook related for whatever reason.
The woman convulsing on the ground in Facebook's office while her manager continues to work at the table should roil you with disgust.
The people who thought they could change things for the better on the inside are gone.
Why are you still on their product?
And the fuckers encouraging federation with Threads, what evil are you inviting to these parts? #Facebook #CarelessPeople #KillTheRich
Update no. 2:
Yesterday my 4-year-old woke up at 7am thus thwarting my plans to read #CarelessPeople for a good hour.
So today I woke up at 6am to resume reading the book. It’s THAT GOOD.
The leaders at #Meta have been shockingly irresponsible in their decisions since the early days. All they care about? Gathering data and influence and making big bucks. I’m so glad I got out of all their platforms and I’m on the #Fediverse instead.
History books won’t be kind to Zuck, Sandberg et al.
Is this what they call the Streisand Effect?
My local library has ~1200 holds on copies of Careless People:
A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
by Wynn-Williams, Sarah
An update: last night I started reading #CarelessPeople and I cannot emphasize enough HOW GOOD it is. A real page-turner.
No wonder #Meta executives are trying to shut down its promotional tour. They come across as shallow, greedy and irresponsible.
The author wrote in the prelude that working there was "like watching a bunch of fourteen-year-olds who’ve been given superpowers and an ungodly amount of money, as they jet around the world to figure out what power has bought and brought them." 
I am still reading Careless People, but here are is a highlight worth mentioning.
Mark, Sheryl, and management are such cowardly dumbfucks they wanted to send Sarah Wynn-Williams to South Korea to see if the Koreans would arrest her, because the cybercrime unit had a warrant of arrest for top management for ignoring Korean law enforcement officials. They called it sending a body. Because that's how rich fucks think about us peons.
Chapter reference: The Body #Facebook #CarelessPeople #KillTheRich
If the fucker doesn’t want us to read it this much…
I'm about a third of the way into the book, and it's pretty obvious why Facebook wants to block promotion. Zuckerberg comes off as a mal-adjusted adolescent (no surprise), and Sheryl Sandberg is shown to be a randomly explosive psycho.
#Facebook
#CarelessPeople
@gemlog
@_elena @gemlog I heard about it in a similar fashion and after work drove to my favorite local bookshop to pick up a copy. Stopped after reading three chapters, but only because I have to be up very early tomorrow. Fascinating (and well written) so far. #CarelessPeople
It's the Streisand Effect, I don't make the rules, you HAVE to boost the stories about it!
Looks like an interesting book, remember NOT to buy it from Amazon.
Thanks to the magic of the Streisand effect, I just heard about #CarelessPeople - a book by former Meta employee Sarah Wynn-Williams.
Apparently the company is FREAKING OUT and seeking legal ways to stop its promotion. I can see why. This article about it in the Times made my jaw drop: https://web.archive.org/web/20250310221013/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/books/review/careless-people-sarah-wynn-williams.html
I will definitely order it at my local bookshop.
Edit: included non-paywalled link (thanks @gemlog)
Sarah Wynn-Williams is not allowed to promote a book, because it makes Facebook billionaires feel uncomfortable. Which book?
Careless People - A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
US https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250391230/carelesspeople/
Netherlands https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/untitled-memoir/9300000224594417
Context: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/11/tech/meta-whistleblower-book-sarah-wynn-williams
#CarelessPeople #SarahWynnWilliams #Facebook #LateStageCapitalism
#NoWarButClassWar
