First published 2019
Roger McNamee built his reputation mentoring Silicon Valley's brightest minds. Few investments made him prouder than his early backing of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. As a major shareholder, McNamee had every reason to celebrate the platform's meteoric rise. Then he started noticing troubling patterns. Bad actors were gaming the system. Foreign operatives spread disinformation. The platform he helped build was being weaponized against democratic institutions. McNamee brought his concerns directly to Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, expecting swift action. Instead, he met polite dismissal and corporate stonewalling. The man who once championed Facebook's potential now watches in horror as the company refuses to confront the damage it enables. McNamee faces an agonizing choice between loyalty to his former protégé and responsibility to his country. This is the story of a mentor's betrayal by his student and a democracy under siege by the very technologies meant to connect us.
Genres: business, politics, non-fiction, technology, 21st-century, current-affairs
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: betrayal, mentor-protege
Setting: Silicon Valley
Period: 21st-century
336 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press