What has Facebook wrought? That’s a central question in “The Social Reckoning,” the sort-of sequel to the 2010 drama “The Social Network.” The new film covers how the company’s growth ultimately opened the door to the spreading of misinformation on platforms owned by Meta.
One part of the movie follows a Wall Street Journal reporter (Jeremy Allen White), who works with a Facebook whistle-blower (Mikey Madison) to investigate the company. The other part takes place on a single day, when the Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is preparing for congressional hearings.
In this scene, Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) is taking part in a mock hearing, working, sometimes begrudgingly, with a crisis public relations strategist named Raya (Wunmi Mosaku), who is coaching him on his answers. Also in the room is one of Zuckerberg’s antagonists, Charlie (Bill Burr), a former colleague who has since written a critical op-ed accusing Facebook of inadequate guardrails.
Discussing his film in an interview, the writer and director Aaron Sorkin said, “I didn’t want to make this about every Facebook issue that there is. I think if you make it about everything, it’s sort of the same as making it about nothing.”
He continued, “So I concentrated on two things: The fact that Facebook won’t fact-check political ads, and the change they made in their algorithm, without telling any of us, that is now feeding you content purposely to make you angry, because they know that that’s what you’re most likely to reshare.”
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