The Inside Story
Published on 27. February 2020
Book
Hardback
592 pages
978-0-241-29793-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Times Best Political and Current Affairs Books of the Year 2020
'Levy portrays a tech company where no one is taking responsibility for what it has unleashed' Financial Times
'This fascinating book reveals the imperial ambitions of Facebook's founder' James Marriott, Sunday Times
'The inside story of how Facebook went from idealism to scandal' Laurence Dodds, Telegraph
Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from the simple website Zuckerberg's first built from his dorm room in his Sophomore year. It has grown into a tech giant, the largest social media platform and one of the biggest companies in the world, with a valuation of more than $576 billion and almost 3 billion users. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in 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 years of exclusive reporting and interviews with Facebook's key executives and employees, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Steven Levy's sweeping narrative digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.
'Levy portrays a tech company where no one is taking responsibility for what it has unleashed' Financial Times
'This fascinating book reveals the imperial ambitions of Facebook's founder' James Marriott, Sunday Times
'The inside story of how Facebook went from idealism to scandal' Laurence Dodds, Telegraph
Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from the simple website Zuckerberg's first built from his dorm room in his Sophomore year. It has grown into a tech giant, the largest social media platform and one of the biggest companies in the world, with a valuation of more than $576 billion and almost 3 billion users. There is no denying the power and omnipresence of Facebook in 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 years of exclusive reporting and interviews with Facebook's key executives and employees, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, Steven Levy's sweeping narrative digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.
Reviews / Votes
This absorbing book will inspire important conversations about big tech and privacy in the twenty-first century * Booklist * This fascinating book reveals the imperial ambitions of Facebook's founder * James Marriott, The Sunday Times * A tour de force of access journalism * Natasha Singer, The New York Times * Steven Levy is the founding guru of technology journalism * Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store and The Upstarts * Levy's narrative is richly detailed, thanks to interviews with Facebookers past and present...His account of Zuckerberg's abbreviated Harvard tenure and Facebook's early years feel fresh, with plenty of colour that reminds you the HBO show Silicon Valley did not have to reach far for its satire * NPR.org * Comprehensive and captivating history * Wall Street Journal * Levy writes with verve... [he] is able to trace the origins of the Cambridge Analytica scheme to Facebook's disregard for the privacy concerns of the first users... He doesn't shy from asking the tough questions * Washington Post * Fresh, up-to-date and insiderish * The Economist * Levy portrays a tech company where no one is taking responsibility for what it has unleashed... The book closes with a recognition that Facebook is bulldozing ahead with new innovations - from Facebook dating to its Libra digital currency project - while Zuckerberg continues to shrug off any ethical queries about his past behaviour * Financial Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 43 mm
Weight
800 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-29793-3 (9780241297933)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2020
1st Edition
Penguin Books Ltd
€14.99
Available for download
Person
Steven Levy is Wired's editor at large. The Washington Post has called him 'America's premier technology journalist.' His previous positions include founder of Backchannel and chief technology writer and senior editor for Newsweek. Levy has written seven previous books and has written for Rolling Stone, Harper's Magazine, Macworld, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, The New Yorker, and Premiere. Levy has also won several awards during his thirty-plus years of writing about technology, including for his book Hackers, which PC Magazine named the best sci-tech book written in the last twenty years; and for Crypto, which won the grand e-book prize at the 2001 Frankfurt Book Fair.