Aaron Sorkin's New Facebook Movie Won't Say Trump's Name, and Critics Are Furious

Aaron Sorkin is back, and this time his target is Facebook. The Social Reckoning blames Mark Zuckerberg’s platform for misinformation, polarization, and the January 6 Capitol riot. It stars Jeremy Allen White as reporter Jeff Horwitz and Mikey Madison as leaker Frances Haugen, and it’s built around a mock congressional hearing where Zuckerberg gets grilled. Sounds like classic Sorkin, right?

But the film has one glaring omission. It never names Donald Trump. Reason magazine called that“stunning, and revealing, cowardice”in a movie that markets itself as bold. The review also argues that Sorkin hinges everything on a single Facebook algorithm change, ignoring evidence that social platforms can expose users to opposing views too. On top of that, the movie reportedly turns a real-life radicalized male acquaintance of Haugen into a rich, racist white woman for dramatic effect.

So now the question is whether a film crusading for truth can take that many liberties with it. Reason’s review ends with a line that’s already making the rounds: maybe what we really need is a reckoning with Aaron Sorkin. Where do you land? Is the movie brave, or is it dodging the hard part?