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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
A well written account of Zuck / Sheryl / Facebook’s repeated abdication of responsibility for its role in enabling and amplifying negativity and crime in this world. Dropped a star because I knew most of the things written in this book - there really wasn’t anything new - but it hit hard reading all of the instances of Facebook’s wrongdoings in one go and felt worth my time.
incredibly well researched and reported, which also makes this incredibly infuriating - I cannot imagine having such power and influence and being so sloppy, careless, and arrogant with it. also genuinely liked it better when the authors read - didn't care for the narrator's voice.
informative
informative
medium-paced
Facebook bring dismantled due to antitrust laws is Mark Zuckerberg's villain origin story.
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
What an interesting book. Regardless of your perspective the influence and direction of MZ on Facebook is insane and it’s impact on our world is substantial. Learning something about that influence at least helps me have a better understanding of social medias influence in our world.
This is a very long and detailed history of Facebook from it's beginning through all of the ups and downs up to and including the January 6 insurrection and Facebook's role in it. Mark Zuckerburg and Sheryl Sandberg do not come out looking good at in this book. It appears that Zuckerburg may know a lot about the internet and technology but next to nothing about human nature, society or democracy. After reading this book, I am glad that I stepped WAY BACK from Facebook when things got really ugly during the Covid pandemic, the 2020 election and its aftermath. I gave the book 4/5 stars because it seemed to be well researched and documented with lots of information from current and former Facebook employees and developers. The way that Facebook was manipulated almost brought our society and democracy to its knees and this book does a good job of documenting that. Important information.
Written by 2 NY times journalists, this book looks at FB’s ugly truth: it profits off of people it claims to unite. It details how user engagement is the king at FB; how getting rid of hate speech, misinformation OR protecting users’ privacy is not a priority. Instagram & WhatsApp were acquired to poach their users. More users means more consumers to pitch/sell to advertisers. On top of that, the NewsFeed algo promotes stories that generate more debate which tend to be salacious, gossipy & outrageous posts.
This thinking has led the company to some of their scandals: CA misuse of FB profiles, letting Trump tell lies & incite violence on FB, letting Russians create accounts/pages to divide American political opinions during the 2016 election, not fact-checking political ads & many more.
Mark still controls FB; and is fighting FTC & states’ antitrust case against his company to break it into pieces (on the basis that it has turned into a monopoly that can crush competitions easily). FB denies this and points to Twitter, Snapchat & TikTok as rivals. Meanwhile, he’s working on a blockchain currency project & VR and augmented reality headsets.
Whatever the future may hold, more than 2 billion people use FB apps daily. Regulating this beast is the need of the hour.
This thinking has led the company to some of their scandals: CA misuse of FB profiles, letting Trump tell lies & incite violence on FB, letting Russians create accounts/pages to divide American political opinions during the 2016 election, not fact-checking political ads & many more.
Mark still controls FB; and is fighting FTC & states’ antitrust case against his company to break it into pieces (on the basis that it has turned into a monopoly that can crush competitions easily). FB denies this and points to Twitter, Snapchat & TikTok as rivals. Meanwhile, he’s working on a blockchain currency project & VR and augmented reality headsets.
Whatever the future may hold, more than 2 billion people use FB apps daily. Regulating this beast is the need of the hour.