Book
Broken code : inside Facebook and the fight to expose its harmful secrets / Jeff Horwitz.
"A behind-the-scenes look at the manipulative tactics Facebook used to grow its business, how it distorted the way we connect online, and the company insiders who found the courage to speak out"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780385549189 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: 330 pages ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Doubleday, [2023]
- Copyright: ©2023
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Facebook (Firm) > Corrupt practices. Facebook (Firm) > History. Social media > United States > History. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookstown Branch | 302.30285 Hor | 31681010349280 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
"A behind-the-scenes look at the manipulative tactics Facebook used to grow its business, how it distorted the way we connect online, and the company insiders who found the courage to speak out"-- - Baker & Taylor
An award-winning Wall Street Journal technology reporter provides an inside look into the ways Facebook used manipulative tactics to grow its business while ignoring the warnings from its own employees about the dangers of such methods. - Random House, Inc.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORSâ CHOICE â¢Â By an award-winning technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal, a behind-the-scenes look at the manipulative tactics Facebook used to grow its business, how it distorted the way we connect online, and the company insiders who found the courage to speak out
"Broken Code fillets Facebookâs strategic failures to address its part in the spread of disinformation, political fracturing and even genocide. The book is stuffed with eye-popping, sometimes Orwellian statistics and anecdotes that could have come only from the inside." âNew York Times Book Review
Once the unrivaled titan of social media, Facebook held a singular place in culture and politics. Along with its sister platforms Instagram and WhatsApp, it was a daily destination for billions of users around the world. Inside and outside the company, Facebook extolled its products as bringing people closer together and giving them voice.
But in the wake of the 2016 election, even some of the companyâs own senior executives came to consider those claims pollyannaish and simplistic. As a succession of scandals rocked Facebook, theyâand the worldâhad to ask whether the company could control, or even understood, its own platforms.
Facebook employees set to work in pursuit of answers. They discovered problems that ran far deeper than politics. Facebook was peddling and amplifying anger, looking the other way at human trafficking, enabling drug cartels and authoritarians, allowing VIP users to break the platformâs supposedly inviolable rules. They even raised concerns about whether the product was safe for teens. Facebook was distorting behavior in ways no one inside or outside the company understood.Â
Enduring personal trauma and professional setbacks, employees successfully identified the root causes of Facebook's viral harms and drew up concrete plans to address them. But the costs of fixing the platformâoften measured in tenths of a percent of user engagementâwere higher than Facebook's leadership was willing to pay. With their work consistently delayed, watered down, or stifled, those who best understood Facebookâs damaging effect on users were left with a choice: to keep silent or go against their employer.
Broken Code tells the story of these employees and their explosive discoveries. Expanding on âThe Facebook Files,â his blockbuster, award-winning series for The Wall Street Journal, reporter Jeff Horwitz lays out in sobering detail not just the architecture of Facebookâs failures, but what the company knew (and often disregarded) about its societal impact. In 2021, the company would rebrand itself Meta, promoting a techno-utopian wonderland. But as Broken Code shows, the problems spawned around the globe by social media canât be resolved by strapping on a headset.
