What does an ex-executive's new memoir reveal about Meta's free speech pivot?

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

Meta was willing to "censor content and shut down political dissent" in order to enter the China market with Facebook, said The Washington Post. The allegation was made in a whistleblower complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the new memoir "Careless People" by former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams, who served as the company's director of global public policy. The book, published March 11, 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. Zuckerberg also agreed to "crack down" on account of a Chinese dissident living in the U.S. A Meta spokesperson said the company's former interest in China was "widely reported" a decade ago.

What did the commentators say?

Wynn-Williams has been "temporarily prohibited from promoting" the book, said TechCrunch. That's because she signed a non-disparagement clause during her employment at Facebook from 2011 to 2017. But the order does not apply to Macmillan, the publisher of "Careless People," and the book "may in fact be benefiting from the 'Streisand effect,'" as readers seek the revelations Meta does not want them to read.

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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" of her allegations, but instead relies on the nondisclosure agreement "corporate employees are routinely required to sign." It is a startling act of "egregious hypocrisy" 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 and more profitable." There might have been a time when truth was determined by an "empirically driven point/counterpoint process" in which the "best facts won." Facebook, though, helped create a world where false narratives stick "even after they are thoroughly debunked." That makes the company's latest efforts seem "defensive and out of step."

What next?

Meta's legal fight against Wynn-Williams "appears to have drawn increased attention" to her memoir, said Fast Company. The book soared to No. 5 on Amazon's rankings the first day after the arbitrator ordered her to stop speaking about it. The battle will continue. "Careless People" is "false and defamatory" and should never have been published," said Meta spokesperson Andy Stone.