The Orwell Lecture 2026: Sarah Wynn-Williams

The lawyer and former director of global public policy at Facebook delivers this year’s Orwell Lecture.

A former New Zealand diplomat and international lawyer, after leaving Meta (the company that owns Facebook), Sarah Wynn-Williams has continued to work on tech policy, including artificial intelligence.

Due to the legal action taken against Wynn-Williams by Meta, she’s unable to talk about the company.

Set up to shine a light on brave writing, the Orwell Lecture has been given annually since 1989 in memory of the author, essayist and journalist George Orwell. Speakers are tasked with discussing "any topic Orwell might have been interested in",. Previous lecturers have included Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Steven Pinker, Ian McEwan and Dame Hilary Mantel.