Sub-title: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
Sarah was the Director of Public Policy for Facebook from 2011 until she was fired in 2017. She was "in the room where it happened" managing Facebook's strategies for expanding across the world. And that strategy was horrific, the attitude and goals of its leaders being to put Facebook everywhere regardless of the impact on people. She is under a gag order from the courts as Meta (Facebook) used her for violating her severance agreement.
I found the memoir disturbing - both as a portrait of a company run by the next generation and as a revealing, likely unintentional self-portrait. It was strange to be invited into this world of power, unbelievable money, the edge of innovation and a new technology. Sarah claims to have been part of an idealistic team of people intent on bringing access and connection to everyone on the globe. Then she describes how they deviated from that goal, succumbing to the intoxication of controlling an unbridled tool. Her story is convincing and disgusting. What I grappled with was her staying in the middle of it; hanging on to the feeling she could make a difference being on the inside.
She grapples with the second in command, a woman named Sheryl Sandberg (author of "Lean In") who preached the rights of women to work and have a family while demanding 24/7 working hours - to the point of Sarah choosing to send an email while she was in labor with her first child. Insane acceptance of a destructive culture.
As of July 2026, Sarah was still prohibited from promoting the book. If you can find it, read it.
Published: 2025 Read: September 2026 Genre: Memoir
