Starred review from August 2, 2021
New York Times reporters Frenkel and Kang debut with a paragon of investigative journalism in this insiders’ account of the scandals and toxic culture at social media giant Facebook. Compiling interviews with former and current employees as well as investors, regulators, and lawmakers, the authors offer an unvarnished view of the company’s callous business practices, most notably the exploitation of users’ data, their “merciless” overthrows of competitors, and the “powerful monopoly” that resulted. They recap headline-grabbing events such as the discovery of Russian hackers’ use of the platform and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Less familiar (and more riveting) anecdotes include a contract employee leaking a memo to the press, who was then caught by Facebook’s “rat catcher,” Sonya Ahuja, and fired, and former vice president of global communications Elliot Schrage threatening a representative from Common Sense Media who was concerned about protecting children from the potential harms of social media. And though CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg refused to be interviewed, both come vividly to life, the latter a “master manager” and advertising guru, the former an operator who’s affable in public and ruthless behind the scenes. The result is a work of impeccable research and relentless reporting.
An expos� on the many troubling aspects of the social media titan's rise to prominence. Frenkel and Kang, prizewinning New York Times journalists, chronicle the results of more than 1,000 hours of interviews with more than 400 people involved in this sordid story, including corporate executives, employees, investors, lawmakers, academics, and cultural observers, as well as "never-reported emails, memos, and white papers involving or approved by top executives." The authors focus primarily on the time between the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, delivering a damning, often shocking portrait of finger-pointing and PR turmoil. Underpinning the narrative are a variety of global scandals involving Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, including the Cambridge Analytica debacle, the Russian cyber-meddling ordeal, and the use of Facebook and other social media to livestream the January Capitol insurrection. Ultimately, the authors assert that many Facebook executives had knowledge of the company's sketchy ethics but were powerless to create changes to circumvent problems or, as Frenkel and Kang exhaustively attest, to even redirect Zuckerberg's attention. The authors probe the business relationship between Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, a former Google exec with ruthless advertising instincts and data mining experience. The profile of Sandberg reveals fascinating details about how she employed the most controversial methodologies to surveil and capture "connected" Facebook user data and behavior patterns on the internet in order to maximize ad revenue. Also startling is the meticulous hunting abilities of Sonya Ahuja, the company's "rat catcher," who mercilessly rooted out internal harassment complaints and whistleblowers. This sharp study serves as a convincing, effectively researched and sourced report of how Zuckerberg and Sandberg erected their social media empire with controversial tactics and questionable management styles, all while avoiding a minefield of incriminating investigations and lawsuits. Though Zuckerberg and Sandberg initially agreed to participate in the authors' interviews (if just to deliver their perspective to readers), eventually they expressed "no interest in participating." Thorough, high-caliber investigative reporting every social media user should read.
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New York Times Book Review
"Frenkel and Kang faced the challenge of unearthing new and interesting material about one of the most heavily debated communication tools of our modern age. More than 400 interviews later, they've 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. . . . By weaving all those threads together, and adding new reporting from high-level meetings in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., the authors manage to effectively examine the shortcomings in the company's leadership, structure and accountability. The book connects the internal drama and decision-making at Facebook with what we have all experienced on the outside." — New York Times Book Review
"Fascinating.... Adds a trove of rich detail that will be important in the ongoing assessment of social media's impact on society and democracy." — Washington Post
"There's so much new reporting in this book, a story we thought we understood fully. It turns out there is much more to it." — Morning Joe
"A great book. Everybody should read it." — Kara Swisher
"Fascinating." — People
"A valuable record of what went wrong, when, where, why, specifically in the last five years." — CNN
"Explosive.... Makes powerful claims about the company's vast influence and repeated mistakes." — Today
"Stunning revelations. . . . Damning new details. . . . Fantastic." — Jake Tapper
"An Ugly Truth build[s] a compelling case that Facebook has grown far past its origins ... into a delivery system perfectly suited for the propagation of extremist views and outright untruths.... Frenkel and Kang offer a compelling argument that in the interest of preserving democracy, we must take steps to purge Facebook of outright falsehoods, hate and disinformation now." — Associated Press
"Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang detail the company's dawning awareness of the foreign adversaries in their midst. By the time it's all over, Donald Trump will be president, and Facebook's halting response triggers an international reckoning over the size and power of technology platforms....The broad outlines of this story are well known.... The value in An Ugly Truth comes from the detail it brings to the Russia investigation as it was experienced by some of its participants at the time.... The book is worth reading for everyone interested in social networks, trust and safety, and cybersecurity. (And, of course, for anyone else like me who is fascinated by Facebook history.)" — Casey Newton, The Verge
"New York Times reporters Frenkel and Kang debut with a paragon of investigative journalism in this insiders' account of the scandals and toxic culture at social media giant Facebook....A work of impeccable research and relentless reporting." — Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A damning, often shocking portrait of finger-pointing and PR turmoil. . . . This sharp study serves as a convincing, effectively researched and sourced report of how Zuckerberg and Sandberg erected their social media empire with controversial tactics and questionable management styles, all while avoiding a minefield of incriminating investigations and lawsuits. . . . Thorough,...