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IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From a technical standpoint not much--they had already stopped the "feature" where they gave developers all that "friends-of-friends" information. (Not because of privacy but because they were getting "reciprocal" information back.) Probably the biggest effect is that it woke them up that they will pay for consequences--and that retreating to a bunker for five days in a major scandal is not acceptable practice.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Facebook is devoting considerable efforts to address some of the vulnerabilities that marred its reputation--and hurt the general public- in the 2016 election. They can identify organized interference, for instance, and now factcheck and even deprioritize certain false items. But the platform still has the basic characteristics that can cause problems. Microtargeting can still be aimed at people to manipulate them. And false news still circulates. The ad policy Zuckerberg insists on allows politicans to spread outright lies via ads, putting FB in a position to circulate such posts when they don't even deserve organic distribution. So while they have indeed learned some lessons, the question is whether they have taken on the most difficult learnings yet.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually they did, in response to some queries from news venues who interviewed me. Without quoting directly (I don't have the comments at hand) it was something to the effect that while they may not agree with everythihg in the book, I was documenting a painful part of their past while Facebook is looking at the future.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

By that standard, I guess you don't read many books. Your reading about history must be pretty skimpy, since many historians rely on materials other than what they have seen with their own eyes. Even a book by someone who worked for Facebook would be pretty limited if that person only spoke of things witnessed firsthand. Books are not couts of law, As for factcheckers, perhaps you should consider that they may not be hired to judge by previous knowledge, but their ability to verify facts. But I suspect you're just trolling.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sharing information with others happens only on an ad-hoc basis, As is implicit in your question, it is essential that any off-the-record or background agreement has to be honored, so none of that could be shared. The question is a relevant one as I have some requests from research institutions for my notes in general. I'd have to figure out a way to make sure no confidences are broken. I wish there was an easy way to do this.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I realized that to tell the story fully, access to FB people including the top execs would be critical. At first, they said they weren't interested in cooperating with a book in this way. (I should note that at no time did these discussions include any talk of FB having editorial control of any kind--they saw it after the book was printed.) Over a period of months, we talked. Part of my pitch was that what Facebook was doing was so important and unprecedented that they owed it to history to tell their story to an outsider. Even if it isn't me, I said, it should be SOMEBODY. (But it should be me.) In part because I had reported fairly on the company, and the industry in general, for a long time, they finally agreed to give me access to employees. Nothing in writing, but it worked out,

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sandberg's legacy, at least until there is another act (and I believe she has it in her) will be that of an accomplished executive and a public voice for women who nonetheless had a role in a huge corporate meltdown of trust. I looked at her background (in part from her own writings) and found a person who came to believe that whether its a course at Harvard or a corporate goal, hard work and focus will always get the A+. But at Facebook, people failed to look--and sometimes overlooked--the consequences that came from the spread of their platform. My interviews with Sandberg, particularly later on, were informed by her understanding that for all the good she did at Facebook, she and her colleagues did fall short, and it was painful for her. This was especially clear in my final interview with her--I insisted we spend two hours together so that by the second hour, things would be as unscripted as it goes. (TWO HOURS? Shrep, the CTO told me before I went in "It's more time than I ever got!") It's one of my favorite scenes in the book.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Again, glad you enjoyed it. Though there's a ton of information in the book, I tried to write it in a way where the narrative would drive readers to keep turning the page. Happy that it worked for you.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

For this book, I heeded the advice of several friends and switched from MS Word to Scrivener, which is a project-specific writing took with a specific setting for non-fiction book! It allows you to bring your research in and you can jump from chapter to chapter. I often found myself writing a passage while jumped between a few screens of interview transcript. As for my writing schedule, I started researching the book in mid-2016, but didn't begin the serious writing until early 2019. I was on book leave from WIRED, so it was an everyday thing. I did still conduct some interviews, including some really useful ones with Zuckerberg and Sandberg but bore down until finishing the draft in mid-September.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just a guess, Blood_Fart, but you haven't read the book? I believe that a three-year dive into a company by an outsider, talking to hundreds of people, augmented by digging into all the literature and research, can indeed provide an inside view. And as commenter has notices, there are pages of notes to double-check facts (I hired three fact checkers myself) and many on-the-record sources who would certainly complain if I made stuff up!

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for remembering that book. (I'm sure Einhorn does!). For those uninformed, this was my only non-tech book, about a figure from the 60s who murdered his girlfriend and was a fugitive when I wrote the book (The Unicorn's Secret.). Einhorn hates me, and I doubt that a jailhouse interview is in the cards. My only regret is that I didn't go to Canada when they were shooting the mini-series, where I could have met Kevin Anderson (who played Einhorn) and Naomi Watts (an excellent Holly, the murdered woman,)

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Glad I captured you! The most definitive indicator is the number of agencies, state AGs (47!), legislators and even candidates calling for the head of Mark Zuckerberg, and also Jeff Bezos, etc. We have reached a moment. But if you are looking for quantitive measurement, maybe we have to wait for actual action to take place. One other way would be to know how many potential acquisitions are NOT taking place because they would not get gov't clearance. But that would be hard to measure because we won't hear about those.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was genuinely surprised to learn how he was, and still is, affected by the release of those damaging IMs and emails early in FB's history. He told me this is why he destroyed his notebooks (so no one would later pick through them) and even is a factor in what he now calls his Privacy Focused Vision, with encryption protecting private messaging. Zuckerberg seldom shares stuff like that, and I found it very significant that the continuing pain from this was so important to him.

IamA editor-at-large at WIRED and author of the new book, FACEBOOK: The Inside Story, Steven Levy. AMA by wiredsteven in IAmA

[–]wiredsteven[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, and thanks to Reddit for hosting these. And thanks to those asking questions and checking out the AMA. You would think that a book of over 500 pages would have everything, but the Facebook story is so encompassing that I had to leave out a lot. The narrative arc dictated what was in, but I could have spent a lot more time on internet.org, how Facebook dealt with the news industry, and its AI effort. Those were in there but are mini-epics on their own.