There is a growing tribe of people online who have recognised that social media – Facebook in particular – might be doing more harm than good in society. The online juggernaut has been having a bad run of press in the most recent decade. In this book New York Times reporters Kang and Frenkel look at a snapshot of the company’s troubles.

Kang and Frenkel appear to have a particular barrow to push but it’s hard to deny the breadth of journalistic rigour they’ve applied to their subject. After exhaustive research and interviews, all of it claimed to be fully corroborated by numerous (although often anonymous) sources, they’ve painted a picture of a modern, monolithic corporation scrambling to defuse constant bad news about itself and fight off increasing attention from regulators while continuing to grow into one of the biggest companies in history.

It’s the story of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, his 2IC Sheryl Sandberg and the fiefdoms, allegiances, interests and disagreements that have rocked the power structure of the company. Many of the chapters deal with the stories we know from the headlines but they go much deeper, exposing lesser known meetings, dinners and conferences that senior executives and Zuckerberg initiated to court favour with the US Government of the day – including Trump – with an aim to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

An Ugly Truth is a credible salvo in the argument against not just how insidious the misuse of the internet can be, but unchecked corporate power altogether.

Reviewed by Drew Turney

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Sheera Frenkel covers cybersecurity from San Francisco. Previously, she spent over a decade in the Middle East as a foreign correspondent, reporting for BuzzFeed, NPR, The Times and McClatchy Newspapers.

Cecilia Kang covers technology and regulatory policy out of Washington. She joined the New York Times in 2015 after ten years covering technology and business at the Washington Post.