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‘Dumb fucks’

Facebook’s long record of denial and disdain
by
September 2021, no. 435

An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s battle for domination by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang

Hachette, $32.99 pb, 343 pp

‘Dumb fucks’

Facebook’s long record of denial and disdain
by
September 2021, no. 435
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, testifying before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees, April 10 2018 (photograph by Douglas Christian/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News)
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, testifying before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees, April 10 2018 (photograph by Douglas Christian/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News)

Sealand calls itself a micronation. No one else does. It’s easy to see why: the ‘kingdom’ is little more than a glorified helipad. It rises from the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk like a Greek version of the letter π rendered out of concrete and steel – the sole survivor of a series of Maunsell forts built to shoot down Nazi Kriegsmarine aircraft during World War II. Abandoned by Britain in the 1950s, the fort was hijacked by pirate radio broadcaster Paddy Roy Bates in the 1960s and renamed the Principality of Sealand. Bates crowned himself ‘prince regent’ and – besides firing warning shots at the Royal Navy and fighting off a coup attempt by German mercenaries – entered into a series of sketchy schemes to stay afloat. One enterprise, launched in 2000 with the help of cypherpunk Ryan Lackey, was for the Bates family to turn Sealand into the world’s first data haven: an unbreakable digital lockbox beyond the clutches of law enforcement agencies and copyright lawyers.

Comments (2)

  • Hi Gerson,

    It's not a summary of the book's content. It's an essay. As for Mr Wolfe, I wish.

    All the best,

    Joel
    Posted by Joel Deane
    16 September 2021
  • Wouldn't it be more appropriate to critically review the book rather than do a Tom Wolfe rave summary of its content?
    Posted by Gershon Maller
    16 September 2021

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