'The Social Reckoning' Divides Critics

What happened

Aaron Sorkin wrote and directed The Social Reckoning, a follow-up to The Social Network that moves from Facebook’s founding to harms linked to later company platforms. The film centers on former Facebook engineer Frances Haugen, who shared internal documents with Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz for the “Facebook Files.” The 2010 original dramatized Facebook’s founding and holds a 96% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score, making it the main comparison point. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied that Meta put profit over user safety, while Haugen and the Facebook Files reporting said the company failed to address user harms. The film was set for previews Thursday and a nationwide opening Friday.

How each side covered it

From the left

Left-leaning outlets framed the sequel as a shift from founding myth to institutional harm, while questioning whether the movie matched the original’s force. The Guardian emphasized a whistleblower and journalist challenging Zuckerberg’s Facebook empire. Daily Beast faulted the film as less sleek and propulsive than its predecessor. Boston Globe argued the reckoning arrived too late to feel timely.