A New Zealander who spent more than six years inside Facebook’s leadership team has made explosive claims about the company’s inner workings, in a new memoir that Meta is now trying to block.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, who served as Facebook’s director of global public policy from 2011, is one of the most senior executives from the social media giant to go public with allegations about its practices.
In an interview with Australia’s 60 Minutes, aired by Channel 9, she accused the company of prioritising profits over people, enabling harmful content, and working with authoritarian governments in pursuit of global expansion.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has denied her allegations, saying the book has out-of-date claims and false accusations.
Wynn-Williams’ memoir has hit the top of best-seller lists, despite Meta successfully taking legal action to stop further interviews and restrict the book’s distribution as they say she has breached a non-disparagement agreement.
Speaking to 60 Minutes, Wynn-Williams claimed the company had developed tools to detect when teenage users felt “worthless or helpless” and then used that information to target them with beauty ads. “That makes me feel sick,” she said.
She also alleged that few senior executives allowed their own children to use Facebook’s platforms. “That really surprised me,” she said. “It tells me they know.”
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