The Social Reckoning Spreads into Our Lives

John M. Delia Jr

2 days ago

3 min read

Our society has become addicted to social media and most of us rely on what it offers us. Every day we go on to some sort of communal application to see what information it has to offer us. Here is where some of us get their news and others may follow what their friends want us to see. Our culture has developed into a need for knowledge, and the world wide web provides us for what we all crave; controversy. This situation tells the story of the whistleblower that exposed the leaks and vulnerabilities allowed by one of the largest public communications corporations in the world called Facebook.

When news leaked out that there are influencers on the internet convincing others to become haters on public networks, that was exposed following a video of an incident in California, the Wall Street Journal reporter, Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) decides that there must be a story here. After presenting his case to Kris (Betty Gilpin), the editing manager of the newspaper, the research began. Knowing that what Jeff was going to do would shock the world, his reputation was slowly crossing over into the business world as someone you don’t want to talk with.

Over at Facebook, there was growing concern over an anomaly in the code used and discovered by the civic-integrity team. Teddy (Billy Magnussen) is one of Facebook's high executives over the team that was looking into any unusual data. Pressed hard to move them past any possible leak of information and squashing the members from looking into any matters. Team employee Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a data engineer, had many concerns and deeply wanted to report some of her findings. After not being able to report her anything to the company, she seeks someone who will listen, even Jeff who is ready to enlist her on his quest.

Moving back through the key years of the events and showing what important circumstance that triggered the later occurrences , Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong), the billionaire CEO of Facebook, is preparing for a senate committee meeting with his team appointed executives. As they practice, Raya (Wunmi Mosaku), a member of Zuckerberg's legal counsel, is leading this task that will help with Mark’s image, as well as Charlie (Bill Burr), who was appointed by Raya, is working on how he should promote himself to congress. Together they hope to beat the onslaught that they are about to face when the politicians and news media finally get the chance to attempt to take down this global giant.

Diving into a very difficult subject that reveals the weaknesses of one of the United States largest corporations can be a challenge, but director and writer Aaron Sorkin who presents this event from the point of view of the reporter and the employee that risks everything to leak this sensitive data perfectly. Aaron put together an outstanding storyline that indicates where some of the details were given from his characters, giving us an inside look into the uncertainty these individuals had to face. He kept the audience intrigued and allowed for the content to flow very well. The performance by the team was outstanding and believable, especially the presentation from Jeremy Allen White and Mikey Madison.

The phenomenon that occurred within the realm of the Facebook umbrella opened our eyes to how social influence can affect many of us. Making sure we make our own decisions on what we read or encounter, while searching the net or reviewing our platforms is important for us to realize. This film gives us a great example of what we can encounter, and it definitely will entertain its audience as you experience it in the theater or at home.