Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Roger McNamee: Inside the Facebook Catastrophe

02.14.2019 - By Commonwealth Club of CaliforniaPlay

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If you had told Bay Area technology investor Roger McNamee even three years ago that he would soon be devoting himself to stopping Facebook from destroying our democracy, he would have howled with laughter. He had mentored many tech leaders in his illustrious career, but few things had made him prouder, or had been better for his own bottom line, than helping Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the world's largest social network. Still a large shareholder in Zuckerberg's creation, McNamee had every good reason to stay on the sidelines as the dark side of Facebook came to light. But he couldn't stay quiet. McNamee's new book, Zucked, is about the outspoken investor's efforts to come to terms with the serious damage Facebook was doing to our society. McNamee set out to try to change the massive social network and other tech companies that use design tools to addict and manipulate its users. With the election of Donald Trump, and the emergence of one horrific piece of news after another about the malign ends to which the Facebook platform has been put, McNamee has dedicated his energies to have people understand the threat of Facebook and other social networks. He will discuss what we can do to hold the companies responsible and to protect our public health and political order. Please join us for this important and timely discussion with one of Silicon Valley's most important and outspoken leaders.

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