A new book by a former Meta executive says the company was ready to put its technology at the service of China's Communist government. The revelation — as well as Meta's efforts to keep the executive's book from reaching the American public — raises questions about CEO Mark Zuckerberg's recent public commitment to free speech. 

Meta was willing to "censor content and shut down political dissent" to enter the China market with Facebook, said The Washington Post. The allegation was made in a whistleblower complaint, as well as the new memoir "Careless People" by former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams, who served as director of global public policy. The book reveals Facebook wanted "so desperately" to get a foothold in China that it was ready to let Beijing "oversee all social media content appearing in the country and quash dissenting opinions," said the Post. 

What did the commentators say?
Wynn-Williams has been "temporarily prohibited from promoting" the book, due to a nondisparagement clause she signed during her employment at Facebook from 2011 to 2017, said TechCrunch. But it does not apply to publisher Macmillan, and the book "may in fact be benefiting from the 'Streisand effect,'" as readers seek the revelations Meta does not want them to read.

The China revelations are among "several anecdotes" in Wynn-Williams' memoir demonstrating "how hollow Facebook's commitment to free expression" really is, said Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times. Meta's ability to silence her "isn't based on any legal finding about the truth" but instead a routine NDA. The "egregious hypocrisy" comes just months after Zuckerberg abandoned "professional fact-checking efforts and hate speech policies under the guise of defending free speech," said PEN America's Viktorya Vilk to the Times.

Meta's attempt to suppress "Careless People" is "totally unnecessary," said Steven Levy at Wired. The company has had "every nasty charge" leveled at it over the last decade, yet it "keeps getting bigger." Facebook helped create a world where false narratives stick "even after they are thoroughly debunked." That makes its efforts seem "defensive and out of step."

What next?
Meta's legal fight "appears to have drawn increased attention" to the memoir, said Fast Company. The book, released last week, soared to No. 5 on Amazon's rankings the first day after the arbitrator ordered Wynn-Williams to stop speaking about it. 

The battle continues. "Careless People" is "false and defamatory" and should never have been published," said Meta spokesperson Andy Stone.

Major League Baseball players have become known for their melting pot of backgrounds, but this diversity may be putting a strain on the Japanese baseball industry. Baseball has long been the most popular sport in Japan, with its top league, Nippon Professional Baseball, drawing nearly 27 million attendees last year. But players like Shohei Ohtani have now become major stars in the U.S., and others are bypassing NPB entirely. 

Why are Japanese players flocking to the US?
The phenomenon of Japanese players moving to MLB is not new. Hideo Nomo's stellar 1995 season with the Los Angeles Dodgers is credited with the "explosion of Japanese talent in MLB over the last 30 years," said CNN.

The emergence of superstars like Ohtani, considered by some to be the best player in baseball history, has "helped revitalize baseball, a sport that some say has experienced waning popularity in the U.S. for some time," said NBC News. Japanese influence has gotten so popular in MLB that the Chicago Cubs recently played the Dodgers in Tokyo for their season opener. 

This popularity has led to some Japanese ballplayers going straight to MLB. Shotaro Morii, 18, and Rintaro Sasaki, 19, "moved directly to American baseball, bypassing [Nippon] restrictions and unwritten societal norms of playing first in Japan," said The Associated Press. Morii already has a $1.5 million professional contract with the Athletics, while Sasaki plays at Stanford University.

What does this mean for Japanese baseball?
It's unclear whether this trend will continue in the long term, but some are worried that the tendency to forego NPB will lead to less of a baseball presence in Japan. Japanese professional baseball has been "replaced by an obsession with Japanese stars in America," baseball expert Robert Whiting said to CNN. Japanese baseball is "still an ongoing sport, but people don't watch their own homegrown game like they used to." 

Nippon does not seem to be sweating it. The "success of young players has attracted attention, which has led to the popularity of NPB without any loss of interest from fans," Nippon officials said to the AP.