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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, Facebook has been under constant fire for the past five years, roiled by controversies and crises. It turns out that while the tech giant was connecting the world, they were also mishandling users’ data, spreading fake news, and amplifying dangerous, polarizing hate speech.

The company, many said, had simply lost its way. But the truth is far more complex. Leadership decisions enabled, and then attempted to deflect attention from, the crises. Time after time, Facebook’s engineers were instructed to create tools that encouraged people to spend as much time on the platform as possible, even as those same tools boosted inflammatory rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and partisan filter bubbles. And while consumers and lawmakers focused their outrage on privacy breaches and misinformation, Facebook solidified its role as the world’s most voracious data-mining machine, posting record profits, and shoring up its dominance via aggressive lobbying efforts.

Drawing on their unrivaled sources, Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang take readers inside the complex court politics, alliances and rivalries within the company 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 Facebook 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. Both have been held up as archetypes of uniquely 21^st century executives—he the tech “boy genius” turned billionaire, she the ultimate woman in business, an inspiration to millions through her books and speeches. But sealed off in tight circles of advisers and hobbled by their own ambition and hubris, each has stood by as their technology is coopted by hate-mongers, criminals and corrupt political regimes across the globe, with devastating consequences. In An Ugly Truth, they are at last held accountable. 

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination is a 2021 book by Sheera Frenkel, a New York Times technology reporter. The book provides an inside look at Facebook's rise to power, its internal culture, and its impact on society.

Frenkel draws on interviews with current and former Facebook employees, as well as internal documents and emails, to paint a picture of a company that is often at odds with its own values. She shows how Facebook's pursuit of growth and profit has led it to make decisions that have harmed its users, spread misinformation, and undermined democracy.

The book also delves into the personal lives of Facebook's top executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. Frenkel reveals how their backgrounds and beliefs have shaped the company's culture and policies. She also examines the role that Facebook played in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

An Ugly Truth is a deeply reported and disturbing account of one of the most powerful companies in the world. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the impact of social media on our lives.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the book:

• Facebook's mission to connect the world has often been at odds with its desire to make money.
• The company's algorithms are designed to keep users engaged, even if it means showing them harmful content.
• Facebook has been slow to respond to criticism and has often tried to cover up its mistakes.
• The company's executives are out of touch with the real world and do not understand the impact of their decisions.
• Facebook is a threat to democracy and needs to be regulated.

An Ugly Truth is a powerful indictment of Facebook and a call for change. It is a book that everyone should read.