Facebook’s artificial intelligence algorithm isn’t just an innocent piece of code—it’s a carefully tuned, profit-driven machine that thrives on polarization and division.
In my years of observing how digital marketing and online engagement have evolved, I’ve repeatedly called Facebook’s AI “one of the most destructive technologies ever invented”.
Now, in Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams delivers an insider’s account of how the company’s leadership allowed this algorithmic monster to spiral out of control. She exposes the deep rot within Facebook’s corporate culture—where power and influence were hoarded while accountability was discarded like yesterday’s newsfeed.
An instant number one New York Times bestseller upon publication last week, Facebook’s parent company Meta is trying to stop further distribution, which is ironic considering Facebook’s insistence that the platform stands for “free speech” (whatever the hell that means in today’s world).
I purchased the hardcover on the day it came out and then also bought the audiobook (read by the author) so I could listen in my car too.
A former New Zealand diplomat, Wynn-Williams writes of her Facebook role: “I’m the person Facebook flies in to deal with governments around the world.” She often traveled with Facebook (now Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg or COO Sheryl Sandberg, meeting with heads of state.
This book isn’t just a critique of a company. It’s a warning about what happens when technology is driven by profit without ethics. And it’s a message that aligns with what I—and many others—have been saying for years: Facebook isn’t just reflecting division in society; it’s creating polarization.
We’ve all lived with the aftermath of the Facebook algorithm: election interference, public health misinformation, and a society more polarized than ever. Facebook had chances to course-correct, and it chose not to.
She details how executives understood the dangers of the AI spiral but chose to look the other way. The book lays bare the truth: Facebook doesn’t just enable misinformation; it profits from it.
Wynn-Williams writes that company executives understand this, yet ignore the problem or even outright lies about it because polarization is their business model. Their AI-driven outrage machine makes them billions.
“There is a big difference between what people at Facebook say and what they do,” she writes. For example, despite insisting the use of Facebook is safe for young people, most Facebook employees do not allow their own children to use mobile phones, which shows how much they understand the damage these tools do to young people.
The AI spiral: How Facebook profits from division
Like Wynn-Williams, when I first started using Facebook right after it became available to people other than students, I was a cheerleader for the platform. It felt like an innocent new way for people to communicate.
Things quickly changed when Facebook executives realized AI could be tweaked to help the company make more money.
As I’ve written for years, Facebook’s algorithm is a feedback loop of engagement. Click on one sensational headline—just once—and the system takes note. Click on a second, and you’ve just told the algorithm, “more of this, please”. Before you know it, your feed is flooded with similar content, reinforcing whatever biases or emotions that initial click tapped into.
Misinformation? It spreads because it’s engaging. Conspiracy theories? They thrive because they spark emotional reactions. Outrage? It’s the fuel that keeps users scrolling, commenting, and sharing. The more divisive the content, the longer people stay online, and the more ads Facebook can serve. It’s not an accident—it’s the business model.
Careless People: The rot at Facebook’s core
Wynn-Williams’ revelations about Facebook’s leadership paint a damning picture of a company in moral freefall. Decisions weren’t made with users in mind, but with shareholders and growth metrics as the sole priorities.
I loved the parts of the book where Wynn-Williams dishes on the private lives of Facebook executives. For example, she says Sheryl Sandberg doesn’t follow the ideas in her bestselling book “Lean In” where Sandberg says women can combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment. Wynn-Williams says that’s not how Sandberg behaved. Sandberg didn’t care about people’s personal lives. For example, Wynn-Williams describes being in labor in the delivery room, feet in stirrups, with her computer in hand, writing talking points for Sandberg for an upcoming meeting.
One of the most shocking aspects of Careless People is how the company’s leadership consistently ignored warnings from their own teams. Engineers, policy experts, and even some executives raised alarms about the dangers of their algorithm amplifying false information, fueling radicalization, and deepening political divides. But as Wynn-Williams explains, those concerns were brushed aside. Growth was king. Profits were the priority. Ethics were inconvenient.
Meta’s version of freedom of speech
On January 7, the day after Donald Trump’s election to his second term was certified and a few weeks before he would attend the inauguration, Mark Zuckerberg recorded a video about free speech and published it on on Facebook. “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression,” he said. “We’re replacing fact checkers with Community Notes, simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes. Looking forward to this next chapter.”
Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to believe in these ideas because once Meta executives learned of the the Careless People impending publication, they tried to stop it, filing an emergency request for a hearing before an arbitrator.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone writes: “This ruling affirms that Sarah Wynn Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published. This urgent legal action was made necessary by Williams, who more than eight years after being terminated by the company, deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to shelves after waiting for eight years.”
I asked my buddy Mitch Jackson, an award-winning lawyer and the voice behind Uncensored Objection on Substack his thoughts. “As a lawyer and citizen, I believe the First Amendment is so much more than just ink on parchment—it’s the backbone of our democracy, protecting our right to speak truth to power, challenge authority, and push for change,” Mitch told me. “Its value is immeasurable, and every attempt to erode it—whether through government overreach or corporate gag orders—is an attack on the very freedoms that define us.”
In Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams issues a wake-up call. But the question remains: Is Facebook listening?
One thing is clear—we should be.
