A Wall Street Journal Bestseller An insider’s revealing and in-depth examination of Big Tech’s failure to keep its foundational promises and the steps the industry can take to course-correct in order to make a positive impact on the world. Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech’s Empathy Problem and How to Fix It explores how technology has progressed humanity’s most noble pursuits, while also grappling with the origins of the industry’s destructive empathy deficit and the practical measures Big Tech can take to self-regulate and make it right again. Author Maëlle Gavet examines the tendency for many of Big Tech’s stars to stray from their user-first ideals and make products that actually profoundly damage their customers and ultimately society. Offering an account of the world of tech startups in the United States and Europe—from Amazon, Google, and Facebook to Twitter, Airbnb, and Uber (to name a few)—Trampled by Unicorns argues that the causes and consequences of Big Tech’s failures originate from four main sources: the Valley’s cultural insularity, the hyper-growth business model, the sector’s stunning lack of diversity, and a dangerous self-sustaining ecosystem. However, the book is not just an account of how an industry came off the rails, but also a passionate call to action on how to get it back on track. Gavet, a leading technology executive and former CEO of Ozon, an executive vice president at Priceline Group, and chief operating officer of Compass, formulates a clear call to action for industry leaders, board members, employees, and consumers/users to drive the change necessary to create better, more sustainable businesses—and the steps Western governments are likely to take should tech leaders fail to do so. Steps that include reformed tax codes, reclassification of platforms as information companies, new labor laws, and algorithmic transparency and oversight. Trampled by Unicorns’ exploration of the promise and dangers of technology is perfect for anyone with an interest in entrepreneurship, tech, and global commerce, and a hope of technology’s all-empowering prospect. An illuminating book full of insights, Trampled by Unicorns describes a realistic path forward, even as it uncovers and explains the errors of the past. As Gavet puts it, “we don’t need less tech, we need more empathetic tech.” And how that crucial distinction can be achieved by the tech companies themselves, driving change as governments actively pave the road ahead.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 Part One Monsters of Scale Chapter 1 Making the World a Better Place 7 Tech as Driver of Economic and Social Progress 7 Hidden Effects 10 Chapter 2 Culture Bubble 13 “What Do Engineers Know About the World!” 16 “Steve Jobs Didn’t Build Apple by Being Humble and Caring About People” 19 Chapter 3 Emerald Cities 23 “Landlords Pounding on the Door” 25 “We Know Our Responsibility to Help Starts at Home” 28 “Shockingly Poor Value for Taxpayers” 29 Chapter 4 The New Feudalism 35 The Human Impact of Tech Disruption 35 “They Do a Lot More Revenue with a Lot Fewer People” 39 $1.42 per Hour 41 Chapter 5 Anti-Social Networks 43 Undermining Facts and Science 44 Democracy Under Attack 47 Unrelenting Hate 50 “When She Showed Me the Messages, I Just Felt Sick” 53 “#NewZealandmosqueattack” 54 “The Ugly” 57 YouTube Recommended Alex Jones 15 Billion Times 58 Section 230 60 “You’re Arguing About Whether the Baby’s Dead” 61 “I’m Going to Show You More Car Crashes” 65 Chapter 6 Venture Capital and the Holy Grail of Scale 67 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 69 “It’s All About Scale” 70 “You Don’t Scale Fast If You Try to Get Everything Perfect” 72 FOMO 73 Harvard or Stanford? 74 A New Investor Class? 76 Chapter 7 Psychos of the Valley 79 A Grandiose Sense of Self-Worth and Poor Behavioral Controls 81 Shallow Affect (Superficial Emotional Responses) 83 Pathological Lying 85 A Lack of Remorse or Guilt and a Failure to Accept Responsibility for One’s Own Actions 86 Callousness and Lack of Empathy 87 Juvenile Delinquency 88 Chapter 8 Between Scylla and Charybdis: What Happens If We Do Nothing 91 The Orwell Scenario 92 The Huxley Scenario 96 Part Two Fixing the Chaos Factory Chapter 9 We Should All Be Chief Empathy Officer 105 What Does an Empathetic Company Look Like? 107 1. People 108 2. Decision-Making Processes 114 3. Business Model and Economics 119 Chapter 10 A Multiplayer Game: Corporate Governance in Tech 121 1. Investors 121 2. Boards and Shareholders 122 3. Stock Exchanges 125 4. Investment Bankers and Proxy Advisors 126 5. Industry Bodies 127 Chapter 11 Breaking Up Big Tech? 129 Big Tech’s Anticompetitive Behavior 130 The Anti-Antitrust Cocktail 132 Reinvigorating Antitrust 133 Zuckerberg’s Pushback (And Where He’sWrong) 139 Antitrust Is Not a Universal Tool 143 Chapter 12 Tax, Privacy, and Other Running Sores 145 Implementing Fair and Equitable Taxation 146 Modernizing Employment and Labor Protections 151 Protecting Privacy and Rethinking Data Ownership 153 Fighting for the Preservation of Facts and Civil Discourse 158 Setting Standards for Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and Facial Recognition 166 Chapter 13 Big Tech Broke the News Media: What’s Next? 173 “Sign a Big Check, Then Get Out of theWay” 174 Facebook and Google Are New Versions of Media Companies 177 News Organizations Need More Than Ever to Keep Big Tech Accountable 178 Chapter 14 People Power 181 Epilogue: A Manifesto for Change 185 Acknowledgments 191 About the Author 193 Index 195