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Facebook: The Inside Story
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About This Book
He has had unprecedented access to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg for three years. And now renowned tech writer Steven Levy delivers the definitive history of one of America's most powerful and controversial companies: Facebook. In his sophomore year of college, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. The site caught on like wildfire, and soon students nationwide were on Facebook. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from Zuckerberg's first, modest iteration. It has grown into a tech giant, the largest social media platform and one of the most gargantuan companies in the world, with a valuation of more than $576 billion and almost 3 billion users, including those on its fully owned subsidiaries, Instagram and WhatsApp. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life. And in light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing "fake news" accounts, the handling of its users' personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO, never has the company been more central to the national conversation. Based on hundreds of interviews inside and outside the company, Levy's sweeping narrative digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.
Reviews
"It is a largely sympathetic, and occasionally fawning, portrait of Facebook that seems at odds with the company's recent emergence as an avatar for the risks of unchecked corporate power ..."
"throughout, Levy regularly describes Zuckerberg's awkward and unnerving silences during interviews and meetings—which can be unsettling given that his self-professed goal is to connect people ..."
"For all his criticisms, the author, who enjoyed free access to Zuckerberg, is less dismissive of Facebook and its intentions than Roger McNamee, whose book Zucked (2019) condemns the company's demonstrated disregard for its users' rights ..."
"Facebook-phobes will enjoy Levy's rich account of the company's creepy doings, but his take on Facebook's social impact smacks more of anxiety than thoughtful analysis."
"This absorbing book will inspire important conversations about big tech and privacy in the twenty-first century."
"Though the author's access to these two executives is touted as the book's selling point, Levy relates events in a personable but detached tone that steers clear of hagiography, critique, or even the inside scoop ..."
"mostly unspools a follow-the-data account of how the company's headlong pursuit of growth led to its present predicament."
"Facebook's founder remains a cipher in a book that in many ways doubles as his biography."
"Ultimately, Levy struggles to provide answers for the existential problems he raises and to make sense of the constant flood of Facebook drama."
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