Facebook

The Inside Story

By: Steven Levy

Narrated by: Will Damron

One of the Best Technology Books of 2020—Financial Times

“Levy’s all-access Facebook reflects the reputational swan dive of its subject. . . . The result is evenhanded and devastating.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“[Levy’s] evenhanded conclusions are still damning.”—Reason

“[He] doesn’t shy from asking the tough questions.”—The Washington Post

“Reminds you the HBO show Silicon Valley did not have to reach far for its satire.”—NPR.org

The definitive history, packed with untold stories, of one of America’s most controversial and powerful companies: Facebook

As a college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network.

Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from its first, modest iteration. 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—who has enormous power over what the world sees and says—never has a company been more central to the national conversation.

Millions of words have been written about Facebook, but no one has told the complete story, documenting its ascendancy and missteps. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in American daily life, or the imperative of this book to document the unchecked power and shocking techniques of the company, from growing at all costs to outmaneuvering its biggest rivals to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram, to developing a platform so addictive even some of its own are now beginning to realize its dangers.

Based on hundreds of interviews from inside and outside Facebook, Levy’s sweeping narrative of incredible entrepreneurial success and failure digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.

Insightful and through

It was a very insightful expose on the many stories that weave together to make Facebook. It seems like a pretty balanced view of Facebook!

Meta fka Facebook

great book! almost passed on it due to those complaining about the Cambridge analytica portion.

Went great until RUSSIA

This book is super informative and reads like history, that is until you get to the chapter called The Election. That’s when it suddenly reads like a spy novel. I’m disappointed that the author injected bias into an otherwise solid, informational book. The claim that this Russian-owned page that “might” have been seen by a couple hundred thousand FB users, changed the election outcome is laughable and far fetched.

I am in the middle of building my own social network and am reading this book as a way to know what to expect from Mark Zuckerberg in the future. Also to know how he thinks, his end goals for building Facebook. To that end this book has been extremely helpful and I appreciate the time and thought the author put into its content.

Well worth the read especially if you’re in the space.

Amazing FB bio the best ever

If you’re looking to understand the nitty gritty this book covers it all with full participation from Zuckerberg, Sandberg, the whole team even Bill Gates does an interview

The Interior Workings of Facebook

This was an interesting and comprehensive look into the history of Facebook. The author spent three years and had unprecedented access to Marc Zuckerberg and his revolving door team. It ends in 2019. Given what happened last year, author Levy may have to do a follow-up on last year alone. This book covers Facebook's birth, growth and many growing pains, including buying former competitors, What's App, Instagram and others. It also shows how blindsided the company was by its misuse of user data that wound up being used by right wing Republicans, that aided Russia and other hackers to influence a US and foreign elections, not to mention becoming a platform for fake news and hate speech. The amount of data collected on users is staggering. Insightful, informative, thought provoking this is an excellent work, ably narrated on audio by Will Dameron. Learn why so many employees left, especially higher ups.