Meta's fight to muzzle whistleblower book Careless People backfires as sales surge

A new exposé of Meta is making waves in the marketing world. Careless People, written by the company's former director of global public policy and titled after a line in The Great Gatsby, delivers a scathing portrait of Meta's corporate culture, its handling of data, and its role in global political events.

Meta won an emergency arbitration ruling blocking the author from promoting the book, though the publisher may continue distributing it. The effort to suppress promotion appears to have had the opposite effect, with sales rising on the back of the publicity.

Early readers describe the account as shocking even to those who have followed the company's controversies for years. The author initially joined with a belief in Facebook's potential for positive impact, creating a role for herself, before her experience soured over the years.

The book lands at a moment when enthusiasm for Facebook as the default social platform is already waning among marketers, adding to a wider debate about the company's direction as it faces an antitrust trial and criticism over its shift to AI-driven content distribution.