a review of

this documentary is scratching at the surface of some serious issues but so deeply misunderstands the issues it is pretending to talk about that it is useless as a documentary. when looking at media that is supposed to influence our thinking (i think it's fair to say most documentaries and films fall into this category) it is *crucial* to understand who made the media. this film was paid for and produced in part by bloomberg. now, while bloomberg is one of the more progressive pro-business media outlets, they are unabashedly a deeply pro-business media outlet. how would you expect a pro-business entity to help reign in the out of control and abusive behavior of a...business. (plot spoiler...they won't. this will never happen.) further, this documentary shows footage from literal nazis who have dedicated their lives to destroying our democracy and any semblance of the few limited regulations and guardrails we have to control businesses in the us. this is deeply irresponsible reporting. josh fucking hawley does not care about children. full stop. nazis do not care about children. they care about control, hatred, and power. the republican party has at its core the deregulation of all business. how the hell would a single person alive believe they would want to help regulate tech companies? i hate to break it to y'all...but within a highly capitalist system like we have in the us...there is no fix for businesses acting in atrocious ways. facebook and google do not care about fines. they know they are breaking the law, and their budget literally includes an item for the fines they know they will have to pay for breaking the law. short of abolishing our shitty version of capitalism, nothing is going to fix this. if you care about accountability for these companies, you have to stop using their products. you have to convince your friends to stop using their products. shutting the companies down is the only solution. the "documentary" is also super focused on how social media harms children. social media harms *everyone*. find a way to tell that story and it might be worth listening to. this video is really focused on repealing section two thirty in order to be able to sue the tech companies: a. as detailed in the previous paragraph, the tech companies *do not* care about paying fines. b. section two thirty is the literal backbone of free flow of information on the internet. taking away section two thirty will simply ensure the internet that we mostly all depend on will fall into the hands of authoritarians and fascists. it is already incredibly difficult to use the internet without a tech company knowing your every move...repealing section two thirty would make that worse. free and private exchange of information will be dead. PLEASE go do your own research about all this. this documentary is an intellectual, political, and artistic travesty.