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Zusammenfassung von An Ugly Truth

Name: An Ugly Truth
Rating: 4 (260 reviews)
Author: Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang

Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang

Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination

4 (260 Bewertungen)

29 Min.

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Krisen & Skandale Soziale Medien Techgiganten Das Internet

Inhaltsübersicht

An Ugly Truth
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What’s in it for me? A revealing look at a social media empire.

Facebook’s meteoric rise was a wonder to behold. In a mere decade, this dorm-room project expanded from a small campus curiosity to a worldwide social media empire. Yet, in the last few years, the company’s profile has taken a darker turn. The platform is now noted for privacy issues, misinformation, and unsettling political alliances.

These blinks provide an in-depth look into the complex machinations that transformed Facebook into one of the world’s most controversial companies. Based on rigorous reporting, this account delves into how and why the platform became mired in scandal after scandal. Packed with shocking facts and disturbing truths, this timely examination shows that the social network may have been rotten from the start.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why Zuckerberg ended his first project, FaceMash;
how Facebook disrupted life in Myanmar; and
why the tech company employs a “ratcatcher.”

From the very start, Zuckerberg valued engagement over ethics.

December 8, 2015. A new video appears on Facebook. In the short clip, Donald Trump, then just one of many presidential hopefuls, is delivering a fiery speech. He rails against terrorists, against immigrants, and then he calls for a total and complete ban of Muslims entering the United States.

The clip goes viral – within hours it’s been shared 14,000 times and accumulates more than 100,000 likes. For many employees at Facebook, Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric is hate speech, a clear violation of the site’s terms and conditions. They want it removed from the site.

Mark Zuckerberg disagrees. After meeting with Joel Kaplan, the VP of public policy, Zuckerberg deems the speech too “newsworthy” to delete. The clip remains up to be shared even more.

The key message here is: From the very start, Zuckerberg valued engagement over ethics.

Even as a Harvard undergrad, Zuckerberg’s approach to social networking caused controversy. In fact, his first platform, FaceMash, was a short-lived blog designed to rank the attractiveness of his female classmates. It was popular, but not with everyone. The site received so much criticism from student groups that Zuckerberg decided to develop a new, less shocking project – Thefacebook.

Launched in 2004, this simple, early iteration of what we now call Facebook only had a few features. It let students set up personal pages, connect with other users, and leave each other messages. Still, it was a massive hit on campuses. By 2005, the platform had more than one million members and most were logging in more than four times a day. The site’s success prompted Zuckerberg to leave Harvard, move to Palo Alto, and run Facebook as a full-time endeavor.

In these early years, Facebook grew in leaps and bounds and the site was feted as Silicon Valley's next big thing. The hype was so strong that in 2006 Yahoo tried to buy the company for a billion dollars. Zuckerberg turned down the offer. Despite being shy, awkward, and young, he had ambitious plans for the company. Rather than focusing on profits, he aimed for growth. He continually pushed his small number of staff to make the site more engrossing and entertaining.

In September 2006, Facebook launched the News Feed. This new feature gave users a centralized hub displaying activity from all their friends. At first, the Feed was unpopular – users were put off by the information overload and sudden lack of privacy. Yet, Facebook’s metrics told a different story. The Feed made people log on longer and share more – exactly what Zuckerberg wanted.

Sandberg transformed Facebook into an advertising powerhouse.

Zuckerberg was never a big fan of small talk. Yet, in December 2007, he still worked up the gumption to attend a Christmas party thrown by a colleague from Yahoo. But Zuckerberg didn’t attend for the holiday cheer. No, there was someone there he wanted to meet – a woman named Sheryl Sandberg.

Sandberg already had a sterling reputation as a shrewd businesswoman. Her impressive résumé boasted degrees from Harvard and a stint at the World Bank. At the time, she was working as a VP at Google, perhaps Silicon Valley’s premiere start-up.

Facebook tried and failed to remain politically neutral.

Officially, Sonya Ahuja was an engineer. But, unofficially, she was “the ratcatcher.” Her role at Facebook was simple – whenever an embarrassing story about the company appeared in the press, she had to identify and fire whoever leaked the info.

For the ratcatcher, 2016 was a busy year. Gizmodo, a popular tech blog, was publishing a string of incriminating articles on Facebook’s internal strife. The reporting alleged that as the American election heated up, users’ News Feeds increasingly featured false stories and incendiary hate speech. According to Gizmodo, Facebook employees wanted to curb this disturbing trend.

Facebook avoided taking responsibility for widespread election meddling.

Donald Trump's unlikely electoral victory took much of the country by surprise – and Facebook was no exception. In the days following the election, Zuckerberg and his team scrambled to come to terms with the new reality.

For one, the company had to grapple with the new, possibly hostile, administration. So, in a bid to secure ties with the new president, the company hired Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as a consultant.

Facebook’s lax content moderation contributed to real-life violence.

It’s August 2017. Sai Sitt Thway Aung, a soldier from the 99th Light Infantry Division of the Burmese military, switches on his phone and logs onto Facebook. Carefully, he types out a new post. It describes his anger at Muslims and his desire to drive them from his country.

Aung isn’t alone, either. All across Myanmar, people are posting and sharing negative messages about the Rohingya, the country’s Muslim minority. Soon, the hate spills over into violence. In the following months, more than 24,000 Rohingya are killed and hundreds of thousands more flee to Bangladesh as refugees.

Facebook made many enemies with its anticompetitive practices.

By May 2019, Zuckerberg had become accustomed to negative press coverage. But, despite his thick skin, a new op-ed in the New York Times felt like a stab in the back. It was penned by Chris Hughes, one of Facebook’s early cofounders. The title: “It’s Time to Break Up Facebook.”

Hughes had left Facebook a decade earlier and gone on to found the Economic Security Project, a progressive think tank. In his article, he argued that Facebook had grown too big, too fast. He claimed the company crushed competition, played it fast and loose with user data, and in general acted as a dangerous monopoly.

Facebook tried and failed to rebrand as a bastion of free speech.

Summer 2019 was a busy time for Zuckerberg. At the behest of Joel Kaplan, Nick Clegg, and Facebook's other public policy experts, the CEO spent months rubbing elbows with political insiders. He met with Republican senator Lindsay Graham, right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson, and finally, President Trump himself.

The meeting with Trump, held in the Oval Office over Diet Cokes, went smoothly. Zuckerberg complimented Trump on his marvelous social media presence. In turn, Trump warmed up to Zuckerberg. Afterward, he even posted a Tweet celebrating the occasion.

Multiple crises push Facebook to reevaluate its free speech absolutism.

President Trump is at it again – he’s standing at the podium blustering his way through another press conference. Only this time, it’s April 2020 and COVID-19 is surging around the world. The president, in a signature digression, suggests ingesting household disinfectants could cure the virus.

Of course, within minutes the clip appears on Trump’s Facebook page. Technically, the post violates the site’s dictum against medical misinformation. Since the start of the pandemic, the company has been more vigilant about suppressing dangerous rumors. Yet, how should it handle this one? Should it delete the President’s post?

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Worum geht es in An Ugly Truth?

An Ugly Truth (2021) is a critical look behind the scenes of Facebook. This in-depth investigation reveals the politics and personalities animating the rise and subsequent missteps of this controversial social media behemoth.

Wer An Ugly Truth lesen sollte

Internet addicts looking to understand cyberspace
Political junkies addicted to their News Feed
Anyone who has ever logged on to social media

Über den Autor

Sheera Frenkel is a cybersecurity reporter for the New York Times. Previously, she’s written for a diverse range of outlets including BuzzFeed, NPR, and the Times of London.

Cecilia Kang is a technology and policy reporter for the New York Times. Previously, she spent a decade writing for the Washington Post.

As a team, Frenkel and Kang have won the George Polk Award for National Reporting, the Gerald Loeb Award for Investigative Reporting, and were finalists for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

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