Fortt Knox

Is Facebook really that bad? A conversation with Roger McNamee and Antonio Garcia Martinez

Is Facebook Really That Bad? Roger McNamee’s “Zucked”
VIDEO28:3928:39
Is Facebook Really That Bad? Roger McNamee’s “Zucked”

Facebook is worth almost a half trillion dollars. It has more than 2 billion users who log in at least once a month. It has a famous CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, hailed in Silicon Valley as a Bill Gates for the Internet age – the suburban Harvard kid who dropped out of college to start a company and change the world.

Facebook also has problems. Its once non-controversial mission of connecting the world has taken a dark turn. Connecting the world to what, exactly? After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and controversies over how Facebook gave partners access to user data, there's a question hanging out there.

Is Facebook unwittingly connecting the world to too much misinformation, political manipulation, or worse? Or does the good that happens on Facebook outweigh the bad?

Joining Jon Fortt this week to discuss is Roger McNamee. He's an early investor in Facebook and an early adviser to Mark Zuckerberg. He is also the author of a new book: "Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe." McNamee says Facebook is bad for America.

Also joining the conversation is Antonio García Martínez, former Facebook employee, and author of "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley." He does not think Facebook is bad for America.

Fortt Knox is a weekly podcast from CNBC anchor Jon Fortt. Previous episodes of the program can be found here.