Sarah Wynn-Williams worked at Facebook for many years and offers critical insight into how it became what it is
Sarah Wynn-Williams is used to being attacked by sharks and not just metaphorical ones.
When she was 13 she fended off a real shark in the waters near her home in New Zealand. Lots of lacerations. Her parents quite casually took her to the hospital where the doctors said that she should be fine. In the following days she felt so unwell she pleaded with them to take her back. They didn’t believe her, until they had to. She almost died.
This trauma embedded in her a desire to live life with meaning. She thought that she would find this working at the United Nations. Instead, she became mired in projects drafting annual reports where people argued whether to insert a colon or semi-colon deep in the document.
It was 2009 and a company called Facebook was trolling the waters for talent – a company whose mantra was connect the world. She knew then she had to leave her comfortable UN position and be with them.
In her book Careless People she narrates the growth and change in this company and with every turn of the page we witness the corrosion of ideals through, to put it mildly and banally, the lust for power and money. This could be a Shakespearean drama. Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are the prime anti-heroes whose coterie of people guard their little bubbles telling them only what they want to hear. They become king and queen of their own realm.
This too was not what Sarah had signed up for. Recognizing what a powerful positive tool Facebook could be politically, she constantly pushed for policies that would help those at Facebook understand and respect cultural and political differences. Ironically, while she did help Facebook enter the many international markets it was not to do the work of helping lift people up but to scavenge data, increase the numbers of users and enrich the company. This made her very distraught.
During this time Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, wrote a book called Lean In – a book about empowerment that encouraged women to try a little harder. I was very turned off by this book at the time. How could a billionaire preach to working class women who have done nothing but lean in forever?
Sheryl’s treatment of women at Facebook was over the top hypocritical. She had no sympathy for those struggling with young families. Even I was shocked about what she demanded from her female acolytes.
When Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook at Harvard, it was basically a rating app for women. He has ended up an outrageously wealthy and powerful man who created a company responsible for the death of many people. Just as one small example, he knew that in Myanmar, Facebook contained more hate speech than any other country and he simply refused to censor any of it. People died because of it.
He also understood that Facebook was tracking young people and analyzing who were the most vulnerable. This information was sold to companies so that they could sell more to our children.
I now understand why Mark Zuckerberg had prime seats at the last Trump inauguration. They have so much in common. Move fast and break things. They both love past American president Andrew Jackson, the populist 7th president of the United States and avowed racist and supporter of slavery. They are both obsessed with crowds and they both love money and power.
Let’s hope that they both fall from grace in the near future. Sarah Wynn-Williams was fired from Facebook and is now doing her best to spread the word. No lawsuits yet!
