Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin said he’s working on a film that will center on Facebook and social media’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol.
Sorkin teased the project when asked about the role social media companies play in moderating news during a live episode recording of the podcast “The Town with Matthew Belloni,” which was released Friday.
“Look, yeah, I’ll be writing about this,” Sorkin said. “I blame Facebook for January 6. I do.”
When prodded to explain further, he quipped, “You’re going to need to buy a movie ticket.”
He was asked if the project will serve as a sequel of sorts to his 2010 hit film “The Social Network,” directed by David Fincher, which chronicled the rise of Facebook and won Sorkin an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The screenwriter and director joked he’d give his publicist a break and refrained from divulging more.
“Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm and tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible, because that is what will increase engagement. That is what will get you to what they call inside the hallways of Facebook ‘the infinite scroll,’” Sorkin said.
When asked who was responsible for the algorithm, Sorkin named Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in 2004 and serves as the CEO of the social media platform’s parent company, Meta.
“You think if Mark Zuckerberg stopped it tomorrow then all the problems of this country would go away?” Belloni asked.
“There’s supposed to be a constant tension at Facebook between growth and integrity. There isn’t. There’s just growth,” Sorkin replied.
“If Mark Zuckerberg woke up tomorrow morning and realized there is nothing you can buy for $120 billion dollars that you can’t buy for $119 billion dollars —‘So how about if I make a little bit less money? I will tune up integrity and tune down growth.’ Yes, you can do that by honestly switching a one to a zero and a zero to a one,” Sorkin said to some cheers from the audience.
The Jan. 6 riot saw throngs of Donald Trump supporters besiege and break into the Capitol in attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
Over the course of Trump’s time in office, social media companies came under intense scrutiny over promoting false news, politicians’ statements with no fact checking and divisive content that could have misled or riled up users — sometimes influenced by foreign actors.
Thus far, over 1,387 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged, and prosecutors have secured more than 984 convictions.
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