Ireland: Meta ‘silencing’ former director barred from publicising new book

Dr Johnny Ryan

Careless People is Sarah Wynn-Williams’ account of her time as Meta’s director of global public policy from 2011 to 2017.

The book includes a widely-publicised claim that the Irish government gave Facebook a “special phone” in the event that it encountered any problems in Dublin.

It also claims former taoiseach Enda Kenny asked Meta to help “build up the credibility” of Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) by “talking publicly about its audits of Facebook privacy” and the changes which Meta subsequently made.

The memoir also makes claims about secret deals with the Chinese government, the Myanmar genocide and alleged sexual misconduct.

Meta has described the book’s allegations as “false and defamatory”.

An emergency arbitration hearing in the US on Wednesday heard Meta allege that the book had violated the terms of Ms Wynn-Williams’ 2017 severance agreement.

Arbitrator Nicholas Gowen, of the American Arbitration Association, ruled that she must immediately cease her efforts to promote the book as an interim measure.

Dr Johnny Ryan, director of ICCL’s Enforce unit, said the ruling was “an egregious example of corporate power trampling over the freedom of expression rights of a whistleblower and crucial critic”.

“Ms Wynn-Williams’ explosive claims reaffirm our oft-cited concerns about the poor enforcement of the GDPR by the Data Protection Commission,” he added.

“This kind of silencing has no place in democratic society.”