Toxic tech
After seven years of working alongside Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and other luminaries at Facebook (now Meta), author and former director of global public policy Sarah Wynn-Williams has penned a tale about moral depravity and lust for power that should concern us all.
Landing a job with the tech giant back in 2011 was a dream come true. Wynn-Williams felt elated to get the chance to work on 'the greatest political tool of my lifetime.' She saw the platform's potential to influence politics for the good, and believed she could make a difference.
'It was idealism that originally led me to Facebook. Looking back, I'm a little ashamed to admit that,' Wynn-Williams writes in the opening chapter of her 400-page tell-all.
Zef Nikolla / Associated Press files
Author Sarah Wynn-Williams levels damning accusations at, among others, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg (front centre, seen here in 2012) and Sheryl Sandberg (pictured next to Zuckerberg).
'It started as a hopeful comedy and ended in darkness and regret.'
It wasn't long after landing her dream job when Wynn-Williams realized she did not share the same goals as many of the tech giant executives. Yet she remained determined to establish much-needed policies within Facebook's burgeoning global affairs department. The former diplomat held fast to her belief that she could align her boss, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with altruistic ideals for a connected global community, and to open his eyes to the potential of good and bad political outcomes that existed at his command. She doggedly pursued face time for Zuckerberg with global leaders in the hopes he would become enlightened to the challenges and opportunities for Facebook beyond wealth creation.
Spoiler alert: it didn't work.
From turning a blind eye to atrocities in Myanmar spurred by misinformation spread on Zuckerberg's platform, to utilizing sensitive data captured by emotionally fragile youth for profit, to being awestruck by his unmitigated power that handed Donald Trump his first presidency in 2016, the Facebook executive continually failed to wield his power responsibly.
At times, working for Facebook was like 'enacting a chapter from Machiavelli,' Wynn-Williams writes; yet more often, she says, 'it was like watching a bunch of fourteen-year-olds who've been given superpowers and an ungodly amount of money, as they jet around the world to figure out what power has bought them and brought them.'
A few years in, as though things couldn't get any worse, Wynn-Williams has a new boss — none other than Sandberg's former lover and Republican operative, Joel Kaplan, who brings a special brand of toxic masculinity into the workplace. Along with embedding Trump supporters into the organization and allowing unfettered access to data that is ripe for manipulation, Kaplan sexually harasses Wynn-Williams and violates the terms of her maternity leave.
For her part, Sandberg also ignored the principles of her own 'Lean In' playbook. Most damning, she would often insist her female subordinates 'come to bed' with her while flying on the corporate jet, Wynn-Williams writes. The 'Lean In' empress continually failed to stand up for women in her employ by demanding tolerance for intolerable work conditions.
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Wynn-Williams' shockingly propulsive journey ultimately lands her in China, where she became an eyewitness to the platform's biggest atrocity: a commitment to hand over sensitive data to the Chinese government along with a willingness to block adversarial messages in exchange for entry into the untapped market.
Careless People
Careless People reads like a modern retelling of The Great Gatsby, with Mark Zuckerburg and Sheryl Sandberg the perfect stand-ins for Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan. To a fault, they are the careless people who go about making a mess of things and leaving it for other people to clean up.
Of note, two Canadian prime ministers make an appearance in Careless People: Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau. One is seemingly concerned by Facebook's massive power grab, and the other offers Zuckerberg his undulating admiration.
For find out more about those encounters, and so much more, this book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the dangers lurking in our smartphones and computers.
Rochelle Squires is an avid book reader who traded government briefing binders for books and can be found at home reading from her growing to-be-read pile.
Rochelle SquiresColumnist
Rochelle Squires is a recovering politician after serving 7½ years in the Manitoba legislature. She is a political and social commentator whose column appears Tuesdays.
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