At the 2026 Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook employee and author of the memoir 'Careless People', was forced to remain silent during a panel discussion due to a legal injunction from Meta, Facebook's parent company. This injunction imposes a $50,000 (£37,100) fine on her for any promotion of her book, which contains serious allegations regarding Facebook's workplace culture and her dismissal after filing a sexual harassment complaint against her former boss, Joel Kaplan. During the event, Wynn-Williams was unable to respond verbally or non-verbally, leading to a humorous remark from fellow panelist Carole Cadwalladr about her being in a 'hostage situation'. Despite her silence, Wynn-Williams received a standing ovation at the end of the talk, visibly moved by the audience's support. Meta has claimed that her firing was due to 'poor performance and toxic behavior', while Wynn-Williams maintains that her allegations of harassment are valid. The publisher, Macmillan, expressed commitment to freedom of speech amidst the controversy.