Sorkin’s 112-Minute 'The Social Reckoning' Recasts Facebook Through 2021 Whistleblower Fallout
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 8
Sorkin’s 112-Minute 'The Social Reckoning' Recasts Facebook Through 2021 Whistleblower Fallout
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 8
Summary
Aaron Sorkin’s new 112-minute drama shifts from Facebook’s founding to its societal damage, centering on how social media reshaped minds, children’s safety and U.S. politics.
Frances Haugen and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz drive the story, with the film dramatizing the 2021 disclosures that Facebook knew about harms and chose “profit over safety.”
Set over several years around 2021, the movie follows Haugen’s turn from believer to dissenter on Facebook’s civic integrity team in Menlo Park, then into a reluctant source for Horwitz’s investigation.
The review frames the film as a thematic sequel to 2010’s 'The Social Network,' where Mark Zuckerberg remains present mostly as an avatar of a platform that grew to roughly 3 billion users.