American screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, known for the film The social network and TV series like The west wing and The newsroomis making a film about the attack on the US Congress on January 6, 2021. He said this in an interview in the podcast The town.
Sorkin said there that he “blames Facebook” for the attack on parliament. When the interviewer asked to explain why, Sorkin said, “You’ll have to buy a movie ticket for that.” The screenwriter did not provide further details. During the conversation, he joked how his publisher wanted him to stop talking because the news about the upcoming film wasn’t supposed to be out yet. It is therefore not clear how far the project has progressed.
The film will focus on the attack by supporters of then-outgoing US President Donald Trump, who stormed Congress to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. The insurrection, in which Trump supporters called for the lynching of lawmakers, as did Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence who had to ratify Biden’s victory, was an unprecedented attack on American democracy. Several deaths occurred. Trump has never wanted to condemn the attack, which many consider an attempted coup.
The rise of Facebook
Sorkin is a distinguished, Oscar-winning screenwriter with many successes to his name. The west wing, a fictional series about the White House, was highly acclaimed. With the popular The newsroom he gave insight into the psyche of a TV presenter who wants to get away from superficiality and show the raw truth.
He became best known with his film The social network from 2010, which won three Oscars. In it he tells the story about the origins of Facebook. He now holds that company responsible for what happened on January 6, 2021. “Facebook has tuned its algorithm so that it mainly shows things that divide us,” he said. According to him, it does this because anger makes people stay on the platform longer. “There should be a constant tension between growth and integrity,” Sorkin said. “There isn’t. It’s just growth.”
According to the screenwriter, Mark Zuckerberg can single-handedly remove a lot of tension from American society, if that is what he wants. “If he wakes up one day and realizes that he could do it with a little less money, and makes integrity a little more important and lets growth down a little, then he can do it. For him it is as easy as turning a 1 into a 0.”
Sorkin declined to say whether he sees his upcoming film as a sequel to The social network.
