Meta trying to destroy whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, US senator says

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/17/meta-whistleblower-sarah-wynn-williams-us-senator-josh-hawley

by barbazoo • 5 days ago

86 17 5 days ago

theguardian.com

ChrisArchitect• 5 days ago

Discussions:

Zuckerberg's Increasingly Bizarre War on Whistleblowers

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48698684

'Careless People' author claims Meta surveilled her for 12mos to enforce silence

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48701822

fsloth3• 5 days ago

If you loved Catch-22 you will love ”Careless people”! I warmly recommend a read. Not to support Sarah necessarily - just because the book is great! It’s not really a spill-the-tea as much absurdist escapade in corporate america.

Ok the details on Zuckerberg and ”Lean In” Sandberg _are_ bizarre. Which makes it a super fun read.

fivetenpen• 5 days ago

I’m listening to the audiobook now and it’s captivating. These meta executives really live in a different world. The part with Sandburg and Sarah on the plane was absolutely wild. I can take a good guess at who is leading the charge to silence Sarah after reading that.

tim-tday• 5 days ago

I love the Streisand effect in play here.

Sucks that she’s getting attacked. Hopefully the punitive damages she wins will be staggering.

utdoctor• 5 days ago

I’m a bit over halfway through the book after purchasing it based off the premise alone and, I may be in the minority, but I find her insufferable and very naive.

On more than one occasion makes comparisons to the lofty idealized and non pragmatic goals of governmental institutions like the UN and seems bewildered that a business like Meta doesn’t (obviously) have the same aspirations/alignment.

She just reminds me of a very naive college student from what I’ve read thus far. Grinds my gears but I’m going to finish it.

andor• 5 days ago

So you’re saying that it’s naive to expect a company to care whether they are facilitating a genocide in one of their growth markets?

You must be fun to work with

watwut3• 5 days ago

I think yes, she is naive. She understands diplomacy, but is perpetually surprised by politics of the situation. But, if she was not naive, she would either leave much sooner or comfortably fit into the dark side.

Also, when I read the description of the workplace, between dleep deprivation and isolation from non facebook people, everyone ends up in a bit of "cult group" thinking. That makes you even less likely to think accurately about what goes on around you.

fsloth3• 5 days ago

"insufferable and very naive."

IMHO she is just not from US. US culture _is_ totally foreign to anyone not from there.

Read the part where she describes her interactions with New Zealand prime minister and you will get it. That part to me feels natural (I'm from Finland). Everything else in the book reads like absurdist black comedy to me and not how I would expect people to behave normally.

gherkinnn2• 5 days ago

It has been [0] days since the last report on nasty Meta shenanigans.

On a related note, I believe (based on no evidence) that Zuckerberg knows of a lot more nasty dealings and wants to crucify Wynn-Williams to scare off any potential whistleblowers.

CoastalCoder• 5 days ago

Honest question:

If you have no evidence, then why do you believe it?

watwut3• 5 days ago

Because it is extremely unlikely she knew everything. Based on her book, she was last to learn quite a lot of ugly stuff she reports on - they told her only when they had to.

And she left long time ago. It is even more unlikely that the company magically became clean after her leaving.

gherkinnn2• 5 days ago

Circumstantial plus expecting the worst.

A company and founder with such an extensive list of publicly known misdeeds (starting with Facesmash), chances are that there are many skeletons left to uncover. Setting a precedent is no unknown course of action.

It's not much to go by, but I am a commenter on HN, not a lawyer and Occam's razor doesn't disagree either.

johnbarron• 5 days ago

Zuckerberg is the kind of Incel we have been warned about. Its how the Face Book started and it will be how it will end.

jauntywundrkind• 5 days ago

Cory Doctorow had a great write up two weeks ago, Zuckerberg's increasingly bizarre war on whistleblowers https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/27/zuckerstreisand-2/#autodi...

His end thesis is that even though Meta knows of the Streisand effect, even though they full on expect to lose, badly, and look like bullies chuds and losers, with no real defense, they are doing it to keep everyone else who works or worked at Meta on line, to engage in gratuitous overkill as a message. Sounds about right!

He also had a very excellent piece on pro-Monopolists like Thiel, which just feels so close a breed of absolute deranged fucking madness. Excellent read. Realest of real problems. Deranged billionaires and their syndromes, https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/16/lucky-orifices/

DivingForGold• 5 days ago

Zuck is PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1

Witness Zuck under oath being interrogated by Josh Hawley in hearings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX2zvfD6GCY

Meta trying to destroy whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, US senator says

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