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'The ultimate takedown' New York Times
'The problem of Facebook is Zuckerberg. And the question posed by this splendid book is: what are we going to do about him?' Observer'A comprehensive account . . . drawn from first-hand testimonies. Thoroughly engaging' The Times
'What marks this book out is how it gets under the corporate bonnet . . . to build a picture of astounding corporate arrogance and irresponsibility' Sunday Times'An explosive new book' Daily Mail__________________________________________
Award-winning New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang unveil the tech story of our times in a riveting, behind-the-scenes exposé that offers the definitive account of Facebook's fall from grace. Once one of Silicon Valley's greatest success stories, for the past five years, Facebook has been under constant fire, roiled by controversies and crises. It turns out that while the tech giant was connecting the world, they were also mishandling users' data, allowing the spread of fake news, and the amplification of dangerous, polarising hate speech.
Critics framed the narrative as the irreconcilable conflict between the platform's lofty mission to advance society by bringing people together while also profiting off of them. The company, many said, had simply lost its way. But the truth is far more complex.
Drawing on their unrivalled sources, Frenkel and Kang take readers inside the complex court politics, alliances and rivalries within the company, its growing political influence as well as its skirmishes with privacy groups and the FTC, to shine a light on the fatal cracks in the architecture of the tech behemoth. Their explosive, exclusive reporting led them to a shocking conclusion: The missteps of the last five years were not an anomaly but an inevitability - this is how the platform was built to perform. In a period of great upheaval, growth has remained the one constant under the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. Each has stood by as their technology is co-opted by hate-mongers, criminals and corrupt political regimes across the globe, with devastating consequences. In
An Ugly Truth, they are at last held accountable.
About the author
Sheera Frenkel covers cybersecurity from San Francisco. Previously, she spent over a decade in the Middle East as a foreign correspondent, reporting for BuzzFeed, NPR,
The Times and McClatchy Newspapers.
Cecilia Kang covers technology and regulatory policy out of Washington. She joined the
New York Times in 2015 after ten years covering technology and business at the
Washington Post.
Summary
The Everything Store meets Too Big to Fail in this intimate portrayal of the stumbling giant that is Facebook by two New York Times journalists
Foreword
The Everything Store meets Too Big to Fail in this intimate portrayal of the stumbling giant that is Facebook by two New York Times journalists
Additional text
Impeccably researched through interviews with the company's present and former employees, investors and even enemies, [An Ugly Truth] examines how the social network is used to spread disinformation and its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential victory.
