A former Facebook employee who wrote a bestselling memoir about the company appeared on stage at the 2026 Hay Festival of Literature and Arts – but was forbidden from saying a word.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, author of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, had been advised against participating in the public talk “The Power of Tech”, following a legal injunction imposed by Meta, Facebook’s parent company. The author risks a fine of $50,000 (37,100) any time she engages in promoting the book.
In Careless People, she detailed her years working at the social media giant; it contained a number of headline-making allegations about the workplace culture, its political influence, decision-making, and Wynn-Williams’s own termination from the company.
Copies of Careless People had been removed from sale in the Hay Festival shops ahead of the event, in order to avoid breaching the legal injunction.
During the conversation – which also featured academic Tim Wu and journalist Carole Cadwalladr – Wynn-Williams remained motionless, and was not able to nod or shake her head. Cadwalladr joked to the audience: “I think this might be a Hay first, in which we have an author in a hostage situation.”
At the conclusion of the talk, Wynn-Williams received a standing ovation, and was visibly moved to tears.
Meta filed a lawsuit against Wynn-Williams last year, claiming that the publication of her book was in violation of a non-disparagement agreement she had signed...
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