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The Social Dilemma (Netflix Documentary)
webthesocialdilemma.com·thesocialdilemma.com/
A widely-viewed public-facing documentary useful for understanding real-world misaligned AI deployment in social media; more accessible than academic literature but less technically rigorous—good for onboarding non-technical audiences to AI safety and alignment concerns.
Metadata
Importance: 52/100videoeducational
Summary
A Netflix documentary exploring how social media platforms use AI-driven recommendation algorithms and persuasive design to manipulate user behavior, attention, and beliefs for profit. It features interviews with tech insiders from Google, Facebook, Twitter, and other companies who helped build these systems. The film raises urgent concerns about the societal harms of attention-maximizing AI, including addiction, political polarization, and erosion of democratic discourse.
Key Points
- •AI recommendation algorithms are optimized for engagement/attention rather than user wellbeing, creating addictive feedback loops.
- •Former tech insiders describe deliberate persuasive design techniques that exploit psychological vulnerabilities at massive scale.
- •The business model of 'surveillance capitalism' commodifies human attention and behavioral prediction as core products.
- •Platform algorithms amplify polarizing and emotionally charged content, contributing to political radicalization and misinformation spread.
- •The film argues these systems represent a systemic, societal-scale AI safety problem requiring regulatory and structural intervention.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| AI Preference Manipulation | Risk | 55.0 |
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The Social Dilemma
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The technology that connects us
Also controls us
The dilemma
Never before have a handful of tech designers had such control over the way billions of us think, act, and live our lives.
The Mental Health Dilemma
A 5,000 person study found that higher social media use correlated with self-reported declines in mental and physical health and life satisfaction.
— American Journal of Epidemiology, 2017
The Democracy Dilemma
The # of countries with political disinformation campaigns on social media doubled in the past 2 years.
— New York Times, 2019
The Discrimination Dilemma
64% of the people who joined extremist groups on Facebook did so because the algorithms steered them there.
— Internal Facebook report, 2018
More about The Dilemma
take action
Help change how technology is designed, regulated, and used
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Reboot your use
REbuild the System
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The Film
2 Primetime Emmy Awards
38M viewers in our first 4 weeks
Webby award winner
From the creators of Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral, The Social Dilemma blends documentary investigation and narrative drama to disrupt the disrupters, unveiling the hidden machinations behind everyone’s favorite social media and search platforms.
MORE ABOUT THE FILM
a youth-led debate on regulation
As policymakers debate how to regulate social media, we’re inviting students to join the debate by uploading a 2-minute video with their proposed policy solution by March 21, 2022 for a chance at a $500 scholarship and an appearance on Newsweek’s podcast The Debate .
join the debate
host your own screening
Be part of our Virtual Tour and join the thousands of others who are hosting conversations about The Social Dilemma using our discussion guides and promotional tools.
register your event
take a social media reboot
That toxic feeling? It’s not by accident, it’s by design.
Take back control with our 7-day Social Media Reboot featuring tips to realign your relationship with technology from experts featured in the film.
GET STARTED
our start-up grant winners
The young people most impacted by exploitative technology can also be the ones to help re-engineer it. Meet the inspiring winners of our start-up grant, a competition organized in partnership with LookUp.Live.
meet the winners
our first impact report
We’ve been humbled by the response to the film and the impact we have achieved together. Check out
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