An Ugly Truth

Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination

Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang

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English

Little Brown
12 April 2022

Economics & Business

'An explosive new book' Daily Mail '[A] careful, comprehensive interrogation of every major Facebook scandal. An Ugly Truth provides the kind of satisfaction you might get if you hired a private investigator to track a cheating spouse: it confirms your worst suspicions and then gives you all the dates and details you need to cut through the company's spin' New York Times

Award-winning New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang unveil the tech story of our times in this riveting, behind-the-scenes expose 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. 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.

'Better sourced than all of its predecessors in the genre . . . makes for gripping as well as depressing reading. One of the book's striking revelations is that there is more anxiety inside the company than we realised. Many Facebook employees have been anguished, frustrated or angry about what their employer has been doing in its relentless quest for growth. Some have tried to alert their superiors to their concerns. But time and again the bad news hasn't persuaded those bosses because they didn't sync with the overriding imperative of endless corporate growth . . . The problem of Facebook is Zuckerberg. And the question posed by this splendid book is: what are we going to do about him?' Observer, Book of the Week

'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

'A detailed dismantling of what happened at the highest levels of the company as it pursued a policy of deny, deflect and obfuscate' New Statesman

By: Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang
Imprint: Little Brown
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 196mm, Width: 126mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 280g
ISBN: 9780349144061
ISBN 10: 0349144060
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 12 April 2022
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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.

Reviews for An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination

[Frenkel and Kang] have produced the ultimate takedown via careful, comprehensive interrogation of every major Facebook scandal. An Ugly Truth provides the kind of satisfaction you might get if you hired a private investigator to track a cheating spouse: it confirms your worst suspicions and then gives you all the dates and details you need to cut through the company's spin. * New York Times * A comprehensive account . . . drawn from first-hand testimonies. Thoroughly engaging * The Times * An explosive new book * Daily Mail * A detailed dismantling of what happened at the highest levels of the company as it pursued a policy of deny, deflect and obfuscate. * New Statesman * Better sourced than all of its predecessors in the genre . . . makes for gripping as well as depressing reading. One of the book's striking revelations is that there is more anxiety inside the company than we realised. Many Facebook employees have been anguished, frustrated or angry about what their employer has been doing in its relentless quest for growth. Some have tried to alert their superiors to their concerns. But time and again the bad news hasn't persuaded those bosses because they didn't sync with the overriding imperative of endless corporate growth . . . The problem of Facebook is Zuckerberg. And the question posed by this splendid book is: what are we going to do about him? * Observer, Book of the Week * Drawing on more than 1,000 hours of interviews with hundreds of Facebook associates, [Kang and Frenkel's] fly-on-the-wall expose shows a company that often looks the other way . . . What marks this book out is how it gets under the corporate bonnet, using information from mostly disgruntled former Facebook staff to build a picture of astounding corporate arrogance and irresponsibility. * Sunday Times * The definitive history of what has happened to the social network since its inception . . . a great read * Times Radio * 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. * Sunday Times, Business Books of the Year *