An Ugly Reality takes a critical look at Facebook and its administrators, who support a gaslighting culture and a contentious social media platform that, given its enormous power and influence over our society, can quickly turn into a threat for its users both electronically and in real life.
If Facebook is unfamiliar to you, you must be living in a cave. It all began as a dorm room project. This social media site is currently one of the most powerful corporations in the world. Although being prosperous, the large corporation is known for abusing the privacy of its users, having political prejudices, and frequently running into legal problems.
Sheera Frenkel’s book An Awful Reality examines Facebook and all of its sides. On the outside, they are warm and welcoming, but on the inside, they are untruthful and biassed. The business will soon have approximately three billion active monthly users. And one of the most valuable digital assets in the world was made out of their data. What does this business still do differently than the competition?
Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg to bring people together and encourage socialising. Users’ obsession with the site caused a sharp rise in its popularity. In 2015, the app has become so significant that it might even have an impact on the US presidential elections! But the power that was amassed through the years had a high moral price.
Political news media seized the opportunity as the social platform gained popularity, and it was successful.
The social networking site attracted numerous rivals as it grew to be a major organisation. It also evolved into news organisations’ premier tool. With Facebook, media articles were able to reach a bigger readership. The businesses behind them were ecstatic to see their traffic, authority, and profits rise.
Currently, the corporate social responsibility principle argues that firms must also consider the social and environmental elements of their actions. Instead, Facebook became embroiled in political favoritism and censorship. In order to fire employees who published humiliating insider information on the well-known Gizmodo site, the firm was still looking for them as of 2016.
Even employees were employed for it! Among the ratcatchers was Sonya Ahuja. However she was unable to cover scandals involving the election. High engagement rates for news were favoured by its algorithm. Sadly, these also contained the most offensive material. For this reason, the business launched a feature called trending topics. According to Gizmodo, this technique was being used to obstruct right-wing viewpoints.
These charges have been publicly dismissed by the administration. But, the Cambridge Analytica controversy quickly spread. This business bought user data from up to 87 million people and sold it to supporters of Donald Trump’s campaign. The future president’s campaign team managed to win by producing one of the most successful online ad campaigns in election history using the data at their disposal.
Using Facebook’s treasure mine of data puts business ahead of morals.
Facebook was implicated in several political and legal public wrongdoing, similar to the Cambridge Analytica affair. Even Nevertheless, the business seems to be doing better than ever. The financial accounts and stock values are stable and growing. Meanwhile, the platform keeps drawing new users and monetizing the old ones.
How does Facebook accomplish this? What is it about this business that makes it so successful? The solution is data. Mathematician Clive Humby of the UK once referred to data as the new oil. And it’s more obvious than ever to use this common parallel. Facebook has always been ideally adapted for the online environment.
Its user data collection is astonishingly extensive. With it, the business can target advertisements to each type of customer specifically, bringing in billions of dollars. Also, the platform is designed so that users may exchange ads and data with one another, creating valuable insights that can be generated money off of.
For instance, Facebook unveiled the like button in 2009. With this new feature, it will be able to identify user preferences and sell only those items. Also, the website changed the privacy options, deceiving its users into providing more information about themselves and granting authorization for intelligence gathering. Unethical? Yes. Profitable? Absolutely.
When Facebook’s usage of its users’ data increased, the Center for Digital Democracy became aware of it and complained to the Federal Trade Commission. However, not much has been done. Facebook consented to altering the procedures and conducting audits. But, the government didn’t really set aside much money for exams.
Due to its anti-competitive actions, Facebook has a lot of detractors.
As we’ve seen, lawsuits, scandals, and concerns about data privacy are crucial to Facebook’s commercial reputation. To top it off, the business was able to venture into uncharted area by being charged with anti-competitive behaviour. Although being used to bad headlines, Zuckerberg was taken aback to learn that co-founder Chris Hughes had turned against him.
Hughes quit the company early in order to work on other things. Subsequently, he wrote a piece in which he claimed that the business expanded too quickly by eliminating rivals by leveraging their customers’ data. These assertions were made by others besides him. They were accurate, too! Facebook had bought almost 70 businesses over the years, including Instagram and Whatsapp.
Zuckerberg eventually combined the services. This made it more difficult for lawyers who were attempting to break Facebook’s monopoly. Even Nevertheless, by 2020, this company’s antitrust restrictions had become a hot topic in the US. Thus, who can predict what will happen to Facebook?
The company currently has few allies in Washington, DC as a result of its refusal to ignore a humiliating video of the House Speaker. Additionally, it failed to reposition the business as a platform that supports free expression and democracy. Maybe as a weapon against Chinese social media networks for America.
an ugly truth book review
“An Ugly Truth” by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang is a powerful and disturbing exposé of Facebook’s role in the spread of disinformation and hate speech online. The book provides an in-depth look at the inner workings of Facebook, and the company’s failure to effectively address the negative impact of its platform on society.
One of the key strengths of the book is its thorough research. The authors conducted extensive interviews with current and former Facebook employees, as well as experts in the field of technology and social media. They also drew on internal documents and other sources to provide a comprehensive and compelling narrative of Facebook’s evolution and impact.
Another strength of the book is its accessibility. Despite the complex subject matter, the authors write in clear and engaging prose, making the book accessible to a wide range of readers. They also use real-world examples and anecdotes to illustrate their points, making the book both informative and engaging.
Perhaps the most important contribution of “An Ugly Truth” is its call to action. The authors argue that Facebook’s impact on society is too significant to ignore, and that urgent action is needed to address the negative effects of the platform. They provide concrete suggestions for how Facebook can be held accountable, and offer a powerful reminder of the importance of ethical and responsible technology development.
Overall, “An Ugly Truth” is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and society. The book provides a sobering and compelling account of the negative impact of Facebook on democracy, privacy, and human rights. Highly recommended for anyone looking to better understand the role of social media in shaping our world.
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