Venture Capitalist Roger McNamee on Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe

In Deep with Angie Coiro: Interviews

Show #231 | Guest: Roger McNamee | Show Summary: The warnings are coming from inside the house. Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Roger McNamee are denizens of the same enchanted world: Silicon Valley's inner circle. And they used to all be on the same page, each playing their part growing Facebook into an internet phenomenon— until it hit unprecedented reach and influence. Then they weren't on the same page any more. McNamee was an early and enthusiastic adopter of Facebook, as both a musician and an investor. But he grew disenchanted as he watched the negatives pile up: privacy issues. Screen addiction. Disinformation and political manipulation. Even spying. Digging into the technology and psychology involved, he grew more alarmed at "business models that drive companies to maximize attention at all costs". Now Roger McNamee has teamed with others from the tech world to challenge our new normal - to persuade us that internet titans Facebook and Google present an urgent existential threat to users and society. His new book Zucked makes a persuasive case.