The book has 14 main chapters, not including the prologue and epilogue. The authors state that the book is the result of over a thousand hours of interviews with over four hundred people with intimate knowledge of the company. The book is mostly focused on a five year period, from 2015 – 2020, but also gives some background and history where appropriate.
The prologue starts with describing the events of Dec 9 2020; when the FTC and many states proceeded with a lawsuit against Facebook. The authors mention that they intend to demonstrate that the security/privacy issues and the unfair business practices were not merely an accident or unforeseen consequences of algorithms; but instead a direct result of nefarious planning by executives Zuckerberg and Sandberg.
In the first chapter, the authors discuss the actions that Facebook executives took in 2015 when it became clear that massive privacy leaks were becoming a major problem. They explain that there were dozens of examples of software engineers accessing customer information for their own personal use; usually male employees stealing personal information about women that they were interested in. Thousands of Facebook employees had unfiltered access to users personal information, including gps location data from the Facebook app; and while obvious cases of misuse resulted in termination of employment, there was no system in place to prevent these incidents from happening.
Chapter 2 dives into the origins of Facebook, in an attempt to show what Zuckerberg's original ideas were, and how he viewed privacy concerns in general. The creation of the News Feed is discussed, as well as Zuckerberg's plans to monetize the platform. Chapter 3 gives the background and personal history of Sheryl Sandberg, and explains her impact on the company once she was hired. Generation of ad revenue, and Zuckerberg's obsession with new rival Twitter guided several key decisions during this time period.
Subsequent chapters discuss several different scandals and issues within the company, including: Sonya Ahuja pursuing whistle-blowers, deliberately changing algorithms to repress certain news, dealing with Russian hackers, lobbying efforts, data breaches, lies and manipulation to facilitate acquisitions of rival companies, promoting hate and divisive ideologies, creating a monopoly, and inconsistent political policies.
Overall, there is a quite a bit of information presented here, and for the most part it seems to be well documented and reported from a unbiased perspective. I have to admit though, that even though I was interested in the topic when I started reading, I found the book to be rather boring and difficult to finish. You would really have to be super interested in every minute detail of the decisions of Facebook executives to get through this book quickly, and apparently I didn't really care about this level of minutia as much as I thought. There really isn't much in the way of the author's own opinions, they simply report the events as they were told. This might be more interesting for other business executives or people with ties to the company, but I would imagine many other people might lose interest. Personally I'd give this a 3, but that is only because I found it to be boring; if this subject really interests you then this is probably an excellent source of information.
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Customer reviews
A must read: essential to understanding the most consequential social experiment of our time.
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
Everyone needs to read this book. To say it is eye-opening would be an understatement. The authors managed to get never-reported emails, memos and white papers from top executives at Facebook. This book delivers a behind the scenes view of how leadership at Facebook made decision after decision to grow at any cost. The result is a crisis affecting billions of us. The book's name comes from an internal posting written by one of Facebook’s longest-tenured executives, Andrew Bosworth, which he called “The Ugly.” In the memo he wrote: “The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is de facto good. That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people.” An Ugly Truth covers how Facebook, while connecting us, is also mishandling data, amplifying fake news, and spreading hate speech. It's impressively researched, well written and gives an objective point of view. It's not just a juicy read about the mistakes leadership made. This book is a wake up that the controversies surrounding this tech giant are not mistakes at all, they're a product of how Facebook was built to perform.
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
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Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
The book's name comes from an internal posting written by one of Facebook’s longest-tenured executives, Andrew Bosworth, which he called “The Ugly.” In the memo he wrote: “The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is de facto good. That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people.”
An Ugly Truth covers how Facebook, while connecting us, is also mishandling data, amplifying fake news, and spreading hate speech. It's impressively researched, well written and gives an objective point of view. It's not just a juicy read about the mistakes leadership made. This book is a wake up that the controversies surrounding this tech giant are not mistakes at all, they're a product of how Facebook was built to perform.
A must read: essential to understanding the most consequential social experiment of our time.
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
Everyone needs to read this book. To say it is eye-opening would be an understatement. The authors managed to get never-reported emails, memos and white papers from top executives at Facebook. This book delivers a behind the scenes view of how leadership at Facebook made decision after decision to grow at any cost. The result is a crisis affecting billions of us. Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
The book's name comes from an internal posting written by one of Facebook’s longest-tenured executives, Andrew Bosworth, which he called “The Ugly.” In the memo he wrote: “The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is de facto good. That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people.”
An Ugly Truth covers how Facebook, while connecting us, is also mishandling data, amplifying fake news, and spreading hate speech. It's impressively researched, well written and gives an objective point of view. It's not just a juicy read about the mistakes leadership made. This book is a wake up that the controversies surrounding this tech giant are not mistakes at all, they're a product of how Facebook was built to perform.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
A "must-read" for anyone who is dubious about social media and its negative societal repercussions. And honestly, this is probably a "should-read" for anyone who (like me) tends to take any repercussions for granted, and dives head first into technology with ignorant bliss.
It's a shame that most people who should read it probably won't.
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
Its obviously no secret that Facebook has less than altruistic intentions for all the data they've been mining off its billions of users, but it goes way beyond users getting annoying targeted ads during our infinite scroll sessions. I've always known my data is out there making money for someone else, and I never gave it much thought because I didn't want to be bothered or upset about it. But it is time to face the reality of ultimate human connection under the control of a single corporation with the singular goal of massive growth and profit. To what extent is regulation and accountability that corporation's responsibility?Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2021
A "must-read" for anyone who is dubious about social media and its negative societal repercussions. And honestly, this is probably a "should-read" for anyone who (like me) tends to take any repercussions for granted, and dives head first into technology with ignorant bliss.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2021
The detail in which An Ugly Truth is researched is really impressive. It's a page turner. I crave human connection especially during this time, but the Social Dilemma documentary had me rethink social media. And now this book makes me terrified and angry about social media's way of manipulating our world view and impacting society. Instead of connecting us, Facebook and other companies know it's good business to make us sad and angry.
The extent by which company leaders drove this and didn't listen to employee concerns is alarming.
The Rat Catcher story alone will make your skin crawl.
Facebook is one of the most important companies of our times. You don't have to be a regular Facebook user to understand how much power the company has on our lives. This book will have you pause and think.
The extent by which company leaders drove this and didn't listen to employee concerns is alarming.
The Rat Catcher story alone will make your skin crawl.
Facebook is one of the most important companies of our times. You don't have to be a regular Facebook user to understand how much power the company has on our lives. This book will have you pause and think.
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Top reviews from other countries
Vijay Thapa Luhan
I'm glad I deleted Facebook in 2014. I could see the writing on the wall..
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2021zivia
A must read about the dangers of a social media giant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 14, 2021
zivia
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 14, 2021
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Hande Z
Beauty is truth, and truth is beauty
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2021Stuart Anderson
An ugly business
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2021
