By Sarah Wynn-Williams
Paperback £10.99
By the time you read this review, every MP in the United Kingdom will have received a free copy of Careless People by Pan Macmillan, to try and fight against Meta’s wish to see this book buried at least three feet in the ground. If you want to know more about the backstory of this book, read this article from The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/13/meta-careless-people-book-former-employee), but long story short, Meta is very angry that Sarah has publicly alleged that all the bad things anyone thinks about the tech giant are, in fact, very much true.
Wynn-Williams is a witty, strong, and hard-working woman who pitched her role to Facebook and suddenly found herself flying on private jets, going to parties, and meeting with various heads of states. Her role could be outlined as mediating between Facebook and governments all over the world with the goal to make Facebook a force for good. But solving the problems she and her team had to deal with was like “figuring out how to solve a jigsaw puzzle without knowing the picture you’re trying to build”.
I found the second half of the book absolutely shocking: Sarah Wynn-Williams recounts in great detail all the measures Facebook tried to implement (and often succeeded to) in China and Myanmar in order to be able to bring the platform to those countries and gain more followers. Following its publication, Meta has refuted every single one of her allegations and is legally preventing her from promoting the book.
Believing her allegations are true or not is up to the reader, but I believe Careless People is an essential read for anyone using social media platforms, working in corporate jobs, and generally wanting more transparency and gender equality in a world that is highly dependent on big tech companies.
Review by Martina