Aaron Sorkin is coming back for everything — a potential spiritual sequel to The Social Network that’s also about Jan. 6 and the storming of the Capitol.
During an appearance on The Town podcast, Sorkin was asked about Facebook and the drastic way it (and other social media platforms) have reshaped the political and media landscapes in the 14 years since The Social Network was released. After checking with his publicist in the crowd, Sorkin said, “Look, yeah, I’ll be writing about this. I blame Facebook for Jan. 6.”
When asked to explain why, Sorkin delivered a classic Sorkin quip, “You’re going to need to buy a movie ticket.”
Sorkin went on to clarify, somewhat, that he’s currently “trying” to write a movie before offering a few more thoughts on the matter: “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.’”
The screenwriter placed the blame for this squarely on Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He argued the company had totally forgone trying to balance growth and integrity, arguing, “There’s just growth. If Mark Zuckerberg woke up tomorrow morning and realized there is nothing you can buy for $120 billion that you can’t buy for $119 billion, so how about, ‘If I make a little bit less money, I will tune up the integrity and tune down growth’ — yes, he can do that by honestly switching a 1 to a 0.”
Sorkin has spoken in the past about his desire to follow up The Social Network, which he wrote (and won an Oscar for) and David Fincher directed. The Social Network chronicled the creation of Facebook and the legal disputes around that and looked at some of the ways social media had already begun to reshape social relationships. But being that this was 2010, Facebook hadn’t yet become a total behemoth capable of exerting immense influence on various facets of American culture and politics.
In a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, said he was interested in doing a follow-up on “the dark side” of Facebook, adding: “I think what has been going on with Facebook these last few years is a story very much worth telling, and there is a way to tell it as a follow-up to The Social Network, and that’s as much as I know.”
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