An Ugly Truth

Frenkel, Sheera

£20.00

In November 2018, the New York Times published a bombshell in-depth investigation that exposed, with disturbing insider detail, how leadership decisions at Facebook enabled, and then tried to cover up, massive privacy breaches and Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The story quickly shot to the top of the paper’s most emailed list. It would earn the team of Times reporters a prestigious Loeb award, the George Polk award, and a spot on the Pulitzer short list. But it only skimmed the surface. The investigation’s lead reporters, Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang, spent eighteen months piecing together the story of how one of the most powerful companies in the world tried to bury a damning truth – that Facebook has become a conduit for disinformation, hate speech, and political propaganda.

Available on backorder

Publish Date: 13/07/2021

Description

‘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

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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.

Additional information

Weight 580 g
Dimensions 236 × 158 × 38 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

400

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

302.30285 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K