An intriguing look at Facebook’s oversight of its users’ content.
An insider’s account that alleges that Facebook is biased in how it polices political content.
When Hartwig was hired in 2018 by the consultancy firm Cognizant as a “Bilingual Social Media Content Moderator,” he didn’t realize the client he was serving was Facebook. At first, he was impressed by the company’s ambition to create “reasonable rules for social media,” balancing freedom of speech with a need to regulate the spread of hate, misinformation, and promotion of violence. However, he began to suspect that Facebook was twisting that mission into an instrument of political warfare to promote its preferred causes and their champions, invariably on the left side of the political spectrum. Inspired by the right-wing activist group Project Veritas’ work, the author says that he began meticulously documenting the ways that the rules for content moderators were formulated and applied. According to Hartwig, the company chose to inconsistently apply their rules regarding extremist hyperbole, favoring groups with which it experienced ideological fellowship—including ones that advocated violence. Hartwig and co-author Heckenlively compellingly provide a mountain of evidence for their argument, and provocatively raise questions about the societal impact of a firm that wields such political influence within its reach, which includes a third of the world’s population. However, they undermine their position with breathless hyperbole of their own; for example, they liken Facebook to a “ruthless drug cartel that only played by its own set of rules,” and frets that it will drag society down the “dark road of dictatorship.” Still, despite their penchant for sensationalism, their book offers a valuable and informed contribution to an increasingly important discussion.
An intriguing look at Facebook’s oversight of its users’ content.Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5107-6794-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An intellectually probing analysis.
A wide-ranging investigation of gender, power, and abuse.
British literary scholar and cultural critic Rose examines the impetus for and experience of violence, especially against women. Casting a wide net, she considers sexual predation and harassment; violence against transgender women, including by feminists who engage in “the coercive violence of gendering”; violence depicted in literary fiction; South Africa, where a woman is murdered every three hours and Cape Town is known as the rape capital of the world; and violence against migrant women and children. Although Rose focuses mainly on male violence, she argues that violence is not inherent in masculinity, and she takes issue with feminists who see women “solely or predominantly as the victims of their histories.” Nevertheless, she calls sexual harassment “the great male performative, the act through which a man aims to convince his target not only that he is the one with the power, which is true, but also that his power and his sexuality are one and the same thing.” Though she does not believe “that all women are at risk from all men,” she concedes “that a woman does not say she is scared of a man without cause and that when she does so, we must listen.” Drawing on Freudian psychoanalytic theory, Rose sees violence as “part of the psyche,” characterizing violent behavior as “a crime of the deepest thoughtlessness. It is a sign that the mind has brutally blocked itself.” Feminists, she asserts, must reckon with “the extraordinary, often painful and mostly overlooked range of what the human mind is capable of.” Like Hannah Arendt, Rose sees violence as “a form of entitlement” inflamed by “illegitimate and/or waning power.” The abuse of refugees and asylum seekers, for example, reflects “the violence of colonial expansion” as well as a “fight to preserve the privilege of the few against the many.”
An intellectually probing analysis.Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-374-28421-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A smart if sometimes overheated journey into high-level music-making.
A veteran bass player considers the wide-ranging history of rhythm, alongside his own story.
An eclectic musician, Gibbs has performed with jazz legend Sonny Sharrock, the pioneering alt-funk act Defunkt, the punk-metal ensemble Rollins Band, Brazilian-inflected experimental groups led by Arto Lindsay, and more. Each genre has made its own demands on his skills, and while the book’s title is a bit of a misnomer—it’s not a history as such—he thoughtfully explores how most popular music styles are rooted in African and African American approaches to rhythm. Each chapter is a kind of clinic on each style, featuring an anecdote from his own history as a musician—discovering Afro-Cuban music growing up in New York City, weathering an intimidating audition with experimental-jazz legend Ornette Coleman, touring the world with the demanding and hyperphysical punk veteran Henry Rollins—before exploring the fine points of a genre’s history and structure. To do so, he uses a “frame,” a clock-like image to visualize how each genre approaches multilayered beats. One point he stresses is that the concept of syncopation, in its Western definition of being “off-beat,” is a fundamentally Western concept that treats many Black-rooted genres as “wrong.” Many of the examples he shares of that are engrossing, particularly the “ring shout” and Pattin’ Juba, a cappella styles developed by enslaved people who had their instruments stripped of them. (Another theme Gibbs returns to is that Black musicians have often had to do more with less, prompting innovative approaches.) Sometimes this gets messy—his discussion of various rhythmic frames can get convoluted, and his use of scientific (especially genetic) metaphors feels like overreaching. But his passion comes through consistently, and his discussion of his own versatility is winning and never boastful.
A smart if sometimes overheated journey into high-level music-making.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781541603240
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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