“The Social Reckoning” writer-director Aaron Sorkin told the hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday that “we should all be worried” about the outsized power and influence of tech companies like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, noting, “This isn’t a fake problem.”
Sorkin’s latest film tells the real-life story of how whistleblower Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) leaked to the world controversial secrets about Facebook’s handling of misinformation on its platform and the intentionally addictive tweaks the company made behind the scenes to its social media algorithms. The movie is a spiritual sequel to 2010’s “The Social Network,” which Sorkin penned.
During his “Morning Joe” appearance, the filmmaker noted that Facebook intentionally started pushing content to users that they were “most likely to reshare,” while knowing that such content is “anything that makes you angry.” When asked how much has changed in the years between when he made “The Social Network” and “The Social Reckoning,” Sorkin pointed to Facebook’s realignment as a news source.
“Once they added the news feed, and that news feed is powered by an algorithm, that means that you’re getting different news than you’re getting and you’re getting, and we’re all living in our different realities,” Sorkin explained. “There was meant to be always a tension at the company between growth and safety, and then Mark decided that safety wasn’t doing anything for him.”
“It has become incredibly dangerous,” he added. You can watch Sorkin’s full “Morning Joe” interview yourself below.
Sorkin went on to further insist that the dangers of Facebook and Meta’s still-growing influence on the world are very real and should be taken seriously.
“We should all be worried. This isn’t a fake problem. This is for real, and it’s unprecedented that we’ve had these discussions of what Facebook is doing to democracy,” Sorkin argued. He later acknowledged that “nothing has changed” since Haugen and Horwitz’s Facebook leak.
“A big part of the problem is that there are no laws,” the filmmaker noted. “Laws need to be passed and the people who would pass those laws, their campaigns are being funded by the tech oligarchs.”
Regarding Facebook and Instagram’s addictive algorithm designs, Sorkin drew comparisons between social media addiction and gambling addiction.
“A gambling addict, when they get that hit of dopamine, it doesn’t happen when they win. It doesn’t happen when they’re raking in the chips. It happens when the roulette wheel is spinning,” he said. “A kid gets the hit of dopamine when they’re reaching into their pocket to check their phone to see if they got a like.”
“It is a chemical addiction,” he concluded.
The post Aaron Sorkin Tells ‘Morning Joe’ Everyone Should Be Concerned About Meta’s Power: ‘This Isn’t a Fake Problem’ appeared first on TheWrap.
