SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook parent company Meta is seeking to silence a former employee who has made scandalous allegations in a new tell-all book, obtaining a ruling to temporarily bar her from promoting the memoir or badmouthing the tech giant.

In `Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed and Lost Idealism, released on Tuesday, Sarah Wynn-Williams recounts working at the tech titan from 2011 to 2017.

Her book includes claims of sexual harassment by longtime company executive Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican and ally of President Donald Trump who took over as head of Meta`s international affairs team early this year. She also wrote ofMeta, then known as Facebook, exploring the possibility of breaking into the lucrative China market by appeasing government censors there.

`The suggestion was that as part ofthe negotiations for the company to enter into China, the data of users in Hong Kong could be put in play, Wynn-Williams said in an interview with NPR.

An idea was to flag content in Hong Kong or Taiwan that went `viral` and refer it to a censorship body for review, according to Wynn-Williams. Meta quickly took the matter to arbitration, contending the book violates a non-disparagement contract signed by Wynn-Williams when she worked with the company`s global affairs team.-AFP