Zucked by @Moonalice Opens the debate so we can find a better way.

Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe.


The next post will be Surveillance Capitalism vs Zucked - this one is just a quick review of Roger's book.


Further to reading the book worth listen to Roger on Sam Harris https://samharris.org/podcasts/152-trouble-facebook/

As background: Roger McNamee is a Silicon Valley investor for thirty-five years. He was a former mentor to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and helped recruit COO Sheryl Sandberg.

What you will read is how the BigTech (esp Facebook) amplify tribalism, allow “bad actors” to “harm democracy” and as there is no accountability there is an ever “shirking civic responsibility.”

The book is how we got to this point and not really one on how to answer the problem (will come back to this below). The key point which might be missed is that mafia of funding giants, such as the Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman and many others shape the culture of start-ups and models. Don't blame one person (company), the eco-system is not taking responsibility.  The idea of the "global village" was a place we all wanted as a destination, until we became exposed to the cost of the free ride and so we have to realise we are part of the problem. 

Like Roger presents;  we need to decide if we accept or reject the clever but ruthless tactics of the advertising tool/ model and behavioral manipulation. 

McNamee does offer a proposal for fixing some of the issues such as restoring the power of antitrust and applying it more vigorously to break up digital platforms, alas not original and probably not workable.  Data portability is now law, in EU, and CA and soon in Oz but this will not solve the issues and therefore we are left with a clear articulation of the problem, but no tools in the tool bag to solve it.  Have to say the data as property idea is not top of my list and one addressed here at length in Data is Data

Great read and best outcome - we have a bigger better debate and it is far harder for the Big-tech to get away with anything or plead that they did not know.

Thank you Roger.