‘The Great Hack’ — Netflix Documentary About the Dangers of Social Media
The Netflix documentary, The Great Hack talks about the threat that social media infers.
The Plot
David Carrol, the narrator, investigated the secrets of the algorithms. The data analytics of media platforms gather important personal information.
It exploits how the internet is controlled.
Enticing users with hot social trends and ideas for quick consumption. Which demands more consumption. Sketchy skits that Facebook and Twitter implied on society that inferred what is trendy and what is not.
Carrol stated earlier in the documentary that data and algorithms control everything on social media platforms. It tricks people to use it more. The way people framed suggestions to new people and advertisements.
The Breach
He also tried to root the data breach of Facebook to Donald Trump’s presidential run in 2016. The 5000 data points of Cambridge Analytica (Trump’s consulting firm) led to a controversy that questioned their methods.
This information manipulated a certain cross-section of people. The manipulators went after indecisive voters that are gullible to the internet.
Using the collected data, Cambridge Analytica set out to achieve the wanted results of the political parties that hired them. Carroll’s lawsuit is an attempt to retrieve the data collected on him.
An Alarming Reality
The documentary alarms social media consumers to still be cautious about the internet as a whole since people’s personal information is going to be stored in the database forever. Media giants can easily exploit your data to companies for their personal gains.
Moreover, in order to be more secure is to be more informed. As individuals, limiting data should be a must and people control the media. As long as the people keep it at that state, the media would not control the masses and will save society more.
