Sarah Wynn-Williams (born 1979 or 1980) is a New Zealand lawyer,

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

expert, and author. She was formerly the Director of Public Policy at

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. Her book '' Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism'' was released in 2025 over Facebook's objections.

Early life

Wynn-Williams grew up in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. In 1993, she was reportedly attacked by a shark as a teenager while holidaying at the Golden Bay Holiday Park in Tukurua (part of Parapara) in

Golden Bay / Mohua Golden Bay / Mohua is a large shallow bay in New Zealand's Tasman District, near the northern tip of the South Island. An arm of the Tasman Sea, the bay lies northwest of Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere and Cook Strait. It is protected in the nor ...

. She graduated with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

from the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

and a M.L. from

Victoria University Victoria University may refer to: * Victoria University (Australia), a public research university in Melbourne, Australia * Victoria University, Toronto, a constituent college of the federal University of Toronto in Canada * Victoria University of ...

Career

Wynn-Williams practiced law at the Mallesons, Stephen, Jacques law firm. From 2002–2007, she was a policy adviser in the New Zealand government. From 2007–2011, she managed New Zealand's political affairs and government relations office at its embassy in Washington, D.C. She has also worked for

Oxfam International Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

. Wynn-Williams began working for Facebook in 2011, eventually becoming its global

director. Facebook terminated Williams's employment in 2017, because of alleged "poor performance and toxic behavior". Williams has stated she believes this was in retaliation for reporting her boss Joel Kaplan for

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

In 2025, she released a book about her career at Facebook called ''Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism''. Facebook threatened legal action and an arbitrator prohibited Williams from promoting the book. Facebook is attempting to enforce a non-disparagement agreement. Facebook/

Meta Meta most commonly refers to: * Meta (prefix), a common affix and word in English ( in Greek) * Meta Platforms, an American multinational technology conglomerate (formerly ''Facebook, Inc.'') Meta or META may also refer to: Businesses * Meta (ac ...

has argued that the book is "out of date" and does not reflect current practices. In what has been described as an example of the

Streisand effect The Streisand effect is an unintended consequences, unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or Censorship, censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information. The term was coined in 2005 by ...

, Facebook's legal action led to greater publicity and increased book sales. In their review of the book, ''The Guardian'''s Stuart Jeffries said that Wynn-Williams' retelling of her time at Facebook had "cult vibes" and involves strong criticism of internet.org and Facebook's corporate leadership. Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, a former head of public policy for Meta in Bangladesh who worked for the company at different times than Wynn-Williams, described the book as "a courageous feat, but it glosses over ynn-Williams'sown indifference to warnings from policymakers, civil society, and internal teams outside the U.S. about serious harm to communities from Facebook." Wynn-Williams testified about Facebook/Meta before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the United States Departm ...

on April 9, 2025.

Personal life

Wynn-Williams is married to a journalist. She has three children.

Works

References

External links

* An audio interview with Wynn-Williams before the prohibition on promoting her book. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wynn-Williams, Sarah Facebook employees Living people New Zealand lawyers Oxfam people University of Canterbury alumni Victoria University of Wellington alumni Year of birth missing (living people) New Zealand women diplomats New Zealand diplomats New Zealand writers People from Christchurch