> Your employment agreement can include stuff like “if you say anything bad about us, even to your family in your own home, you owe us $50,000”.

Non-disparagement clauses are limited by the law, which in the United States is augmented by state-level restrictions. There have been some recent developments from the NRLB limiting how severance agreements can be attached to non-disparagement clauses, too.

So it's not generally true that you can be liable for $50K for saying anything bad about your employer in your own home.

The situation with this author is on the other end of "in your own home" spectrum: They went out and wrote a whole book against their employer that violates NDAs, too. Regardless of what you think about Meta or the author, this was clearly a calculated move on their part to draw out a lawsuit because it provides further press coverage and therefore book sales (just look at all the comments in this thread from people claiming they're motivated to go buy it it now). Whether the gamble pays off or not remains to be seen.

Overall this feels a good thing for public, even if the author is money oriented, because this will hopefully make even more details public.

I personally have no qualms about one criminal extorted by another, specially if their fued is making world better for everyone.

Huh, I didn't think of that. If you are aware of the Streisand Effect, it is only logical to use it to your own advantage. Just like Cunningham's Law, you can often get the right answer by posting the wrong one. In fact, this is probably the first time someone is knowingly using the Streisand Effect to their own advantage. There are no prior examples.