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Careless People

A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

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0 of 3 copies available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 3 copies available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

#1 New York Times Bestseller
"Careless People is darkly funny and genuinely shocking...Not only does [Sarah Wynn-Williams] have the storytelling chops to unspool a gripping narrative; she also delivers the goods." -Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

"When one of the world's most powerful media companies tries to snuff out a book — amid other alarming attacks on free speech in America like this — it's time to pull out all the stops." –Ron Charles, The Washington Post
An explosive memoir charting one woman's career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.
From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite.
Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg's reaction when he learned of Facebook's role in Trump's election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to "lean in."
Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.

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    • Kirkus

      April 15, 2025
      An insider's account of some very bad goings-on at Facebook/Meta. Former New Zealand diplomat Wynn-Williams talked her way into an ambassadorial job of sorts at Facebook on the grounds that it was likely to become a political giant. She landed in 2011, thinking that the politics she had in mind would be for the good and that part of her job would be to keep the tech behemoth independent: "Information is power. At some point, governments would want to control it." Warning signs otherwise were there from the start: An outwardly apolitical Mark Zuckerberg decides that he wants to be seated next to Ra�l Castro at a state dinner. (He flees when rebuffed by not just the Cuban leader but by Canada's prime minister.) A German delegation in turn is spurned when it asks for content mediation to curb hate speech: "We failed when it mattered," Wynn-Williams writes. "With the country we most needed to win over." Small wonder, she adds, that Germany opened an investigation on Facebook, which, jumping ahead in her narrative, explains why a company board member proposed courting far-right actors such as MAGA and Germany's AfD--the thought being that less oversight over those who cozy up to them means more profit. China is the grand curiosity: "The mission of the company--making the world more open and connected--is the exact opposite of what the Chinese Communist Party wants, particularly under President Xi Jinping," she writes at a time when the company is going hammer and tongs for market there. And now, the author says, Facebook is "dangling the possibility that it'll give China special access to users' data." Among all this intrigue, Wynn-Williams' accusation of some spectacularly louche and horndoggish behavior among the top brass seems an afterthought, but that gossipy element is there, giving a human touch to "these people and their lethal carelessness." Book: thumbs-up. Subject: frown emoji.

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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