The Social Dilemma Review | Avast

David Strom, 25 September 2020

Despite its flaws, the film could be one small step to help us understand the role that social media plays in our lives

Earlier this month, Netflix started streaming the docufilm The Social Dilemma. It was first screened at Sundance earlier this year, and now is widely available. Since its release, it has been widely reviewed.
The film combines documentary-style interviews with leading minds formerly at Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Instagram, and so on, along with star turns from Shoshana Zuboff, Jaron Lanier and Renee Diresta. The thesis is that the social giants have sold us and our data down the river, and we now are stuck with them. The New York Times review is mostly positive, saying the interview subjects are “conscientious defectors from these companies who explain that the perniciousness of social networking platforms is a feature, not a bug.” The best interview subject is Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google who now runs a non-profit called the Center for Humane Technology.
This is not a new message, but it is nice to hear from the folks that built some of the apps (one guy is the inventor of the Like button) on the regrets they now have with how their tech is being used for evil purposes, such as persecution, child abuse, bullying, and fake news to bring about the demise of our democratic institutions. (This report from BuzzFeed about a leaked Facebook empl ..

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