A former Facebook whistleblower made a silent appearance at the Hay literary festival after the tech giant banned her from speaking about her book.
Sarah Wynn-Williams is the author of a highly critical memoir that makes a series of claims about the company’s internal culture and pursuit of global power.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has obtained a legal order preventing Ms Wynn-Williams from promoting the book Careless People. It warned that her planned appearance at the Hay Festival would breach the conditions. She faces a fine of $50,000 (£38,000) every time she speaks disparagingly about the company.
As a result, Ms Wynn-Williams, who was Facebook’s director of global public policy, took to the stage but sat in silence during the hour-long event, which took place in front of a packed crowd.
One-sided ‘conversation’
What had been billed as a conversation with Prof Tim Wu, an academic and author of his own book about Silicon Valley, was restricted to Prof Wu answering all the questions.
Festival organisers pulled copies of the memoir from their bookshop in response to the legal threat.
Helen Bagnall, the festival’s programmes director, told the audience: “Since Sarah Wynn-Williams’s Meta exposé Careless People was published in March 2025, she has faced immense legal pressure. Today, on the advice of lawyers, she is unable to speak, but she joins us on stage.”
Ms Wynn-Williams worked for Facebook from 2011 until she was sacked in 2017.
In her book, she alleged sexual harassment by Joel Kaplan, who replaced Sir Nick Clegg as Meta’s chief lobbyist, and she has claimed that she was sacked for raising a complaint. Meta called the allegations “unfounded”.
Ms Wynn-Williams also claimed that the company agreed to censor content on behalf of the Chinese government.
Meta obtained a temporary order in March 2025, preventing Ms Wynn-Williams from promoting her book. In March of this year, they threatened her with further sanctions.
In a letter to the festival, Corey Stoughton, Ms Wynn-Williams’s lawyer, wrote: “In March 2026, Meta filed a sanctions motion claiming that Ms Wynn-Williams violates the order any time she appears in public in a place where she should know that her book is available for sale and her presence might draw attention to it, e.g. a bookstore.
“Meta’s motion expressly identified her forthcoming appearance at the Hay Festival as an example of conduct that should be formally sanctioned.”
The arbitrator has refused to lift the temporary order and warned Ms Wynn-Williams that she should not speak at any event “where her presence there will likely encourage sales”, the lawyer said.
‘Age of private censorship’
Prof Wu, a professor of law, science and technology at Columbia Law School in New York, who worked in the White House during the Obama and Biden administrations, told the Hay audience: “For a long time now, people have been saying that the tech platforms have come to have the power and the size and the might of nation states. This is the living example, because this is censorship.
“Any authoritarian regime naturally gravitates towards silencing its critics.
“We need to call this what it is. This is the age of private censorship. This is the assertion of power. This is a demonstration that some of the worst abuses in our time are not confined to kings, emperors and governments.”
Meta has called Ms Wynn-Williams’s book “false and defamatory”.
When the book was published, a Meta spokesman said: “Sarah Wynn-Williams was fired for poor performance and toxic behaviour, and an investigation at the time determined she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.”
Meta has been contacted for comment about Ms Wynn-Williams’s Hay Festival appearance.