“We’re way past making friends.”
The 500 million friends from “The Social Network” (2010) seem quaint now. With nearly billion users in 2019, Facebook (now Meta) appears unstoppable. Its reach far and wide through the corners of the globe. The good, the bad, the ugly – all of it.
The brilliant Aaron Sorkin has totally taken the helm and steered the gigantic social media shipwreck story.
“The Social Reckoning” opens the film with a routine traffic stop that turns riveting with hostility. When you visualize the term “radicalized,” this is an incredible illustration of it.
Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a young data scientist at Facebook, is a part of the Civic Integrity team, tasked with monitoring global risks and mitigating misinformation, fake news and harmful propaganda.
Frances has gradually discovered disturbing data about what Facebook is doing, at the same time that investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), began sniffing around, as the country is approaching election year 2020.
When there’s smoke, there’s fire? This is a combustible one, like playing kerosene with matches.
The two meet in secret – from one initial meeting where Frances is filled with fear, then reluctance and hesitancy, to bolder and riskier, and eventually became a full-blown participant.
Frances believes in Facebook’s mission that they are doing the world good by connecting people and democratizing access. Especially for introverts or socially awkward ones, where they could be themselves behind the screen and make friends.
Frances proclaims over and over that she loves her job, and that she wants to help Facebook, not hurt it, but she could not calm her conscience. She’s acutely aware that she’s violating her employment NDA and could potentially go to prison for her actions - for photographing thousands of pictures of confidential trade secret documents, essentially stealing company property and going up against one of the most powerful corporations and richest men in the world.
Frances relays that a highly alarming percentage of users who have been directed to join extremist groups come from Facebook’s own algorithms. Then MSI (Meaningful Social Interactions) is another method, which is driven to increase engagement by altering the algorithms to value likes 5x, comments 15x and reshares 30x.
What’s the number one emotion and what kinds of posts that would push people to reshare? Anger. Rage-bait posts. And Facebook senior leaders knew full well.
With the consequential U.S. presidential election and global COVID colliding, so are false narratives, inflammatory comments, bullying pages, hate speech, and extremist recruitment.
On the mental health front, teens have also been universally impacted by excessive social media use designed for endless scrolling, causing poor body image, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideations.
The behind-the-scenes media and political coaching of Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong, mimicking stiff-looking and tight-lipped Zuck) are animated, egged on by investor-turned-critic Charlie Garrigan (Bill Burr) after the fallout of their relationship, while crisis PR strategist Raya Akinola (Wunmi Mosaku) is doing her darndest to humanize Zuckerberg and present himself in a favorable light under congressional microscope.
At what point should a social media corporation draw the hard digital lines between free speech and intervention by censoring comments? Is it only when there’s an imminent harm? How imminent and how would you define that? How could a company fact-check political ads and mass dissemination of news racing across the world with lightning speed?
The scenes of the capitol insurrection and Facebook chief’s decision-making surrounded by live feed all around are tensely intercut and unfolding in real time.
How can ONE person make a global impact and at scale? By inflicting pain that hurts, combined with the power of the press. And that, is a force to be reckoned with. Frances throws the whistleblower gauntlet and takes a strong stand with her conviction in a David vs Goliath showdown.
Putting growth at all costs over safety guardrails, profit-over-people Facebook has caused widespread polarization and stoked division, leading to life-and-death situations. The Facebook Files are now open to the public.
In true Sorkin’s fashion, “The Social Reckoning” is sharply written with rapid-fire dialogue, counting down war room parallel scenes, and provocative themes with no clean solutions.
While not quite reaching “The Social Network's” stellar bar, “The Social Reckoning” is a solid companion, engaging and thought-provoking piece.
