Teaser for The Social Reckoning, a film by Aaron Sorkin, follow-up to The Social Network

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Teaser for The Social Reckoning, a film by Aaron Sorkin, follow-up to The Social Network

12 June 2026

Although hints of what was to come were there to see, The Social Network, the 2010 dramatisation of the founding of Facebook, had the hallmarks of a feel-good story.

At least from the perspective of would-be entrepreneurs, whose next-big-thing idea, had, against the odds (of course), become the next-big-thing.

A lot has happened in sixteen years though, and there’s not much left in the Facebook story for many people to feel good about today.

Aaron Sorkin, who co-wrote the screenplay for the David Fincher directed 2010 feature, has tapped into the darkness pervading the world’s largest social network, to write and direct a follow-up to the 2010 film, titled The Social Reckoning.

Sorkin initially floated the idea of a sequel in 2024. At that point the American playwright and screenwriter sought to cast a critical light on the part he felt Facebook played in the January 6 insurrection of 2021, in the United States.

But Sorkin’s focus has changed. In The Social Reckoning the negative impact on users mental health is among subject matter explored. As is co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s seeming dictatorial style of management.

Darkness permeates the teaser/trailer. Gloom is banished, but only momentarily, by the glare of bright spotlights shining in our faces. There are no frat-house parties, or swimming pool high-jinks, in this chapter of the social network’s story. This is a bleak world indeed we now find ourselves in.

Facebook spent billions on the metaverse and all they got was a new name

10 June 2026

A postmortem, perhaps, of the metaverse, particularly as envisaged by Meta, by Nick Heer.

A number of other big tech players also had visions of an all encompassing immersive, digital realm, but aside from sometimes considerable expenditure, not a whole lot came of it.

From where we are now, several years later, the connection between the COVID pandemic, and Facebook’s announcement they were effectively going all-in on the metaverse, couldn’t be clearer.

The world was in the midst of seemingly endless lockdowns, and stay at home mandates. The metaverse pitch was certainly persuasive. We couldn’t live in the real world, so how about instead a vast virtual domain? Who couldn’t help but be excited by the prospect?

I went as far as setting-up a metaverse tag here, which tellingly, hasn’t been used in three years.

But the world we find ourselves in, nearly five years later, couldn’t be much further removed from that of late 2021, when Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of what was then Facebook, unveiled his vision of the metaverse.

But let’s give Zuckerberg some due here. He had known something big, something groundbreaking, was in our future, declaring three years earlier in 2018, that “every ten to fifteen years or so, there’s a major new computing paradigm.”

The thing of course is this new paradigm turned out to be something else all together.

Born again social network Friendster aims to resurrect real-life friends networks

29 April 2026

Even after Friendster stopped being a social network I still checked in on the website from time to time. It’s evidently been a while since I did that though.

Last time I looked, Friendster — having gone through a number of changes in direction — was a gaming platform, but, as I’ve learned, ceased operations in 2015.

After almost a decade in the wilderness, American developer and entrepreneur Mike Carson has revived the old virtual community, but things are little bit different this time around.

When I signed up (again) I needed to install the Friendster app on my phone, even though there is a website. The biggest difference, that I can see so far, is in the way you connect with other people.

Instead of searching for people you might know, friending people on the new Friendster requires doing so in person. In order to connect, you and your prospective friend need to scan codes on each other’s phones. I’m no Snapchat power user, but I think they do, or did, something similar.

Friending acquaintances face-to-face means friends networks may be somewhat smaller than some social network users are accustomed to, but as copy on the website tells us, Friendster is “built for real-life friends”. That’s a feature that will certainly appeal to some people.

Mark Zuckerberg will exist as the forever Meta CEO as an AI clone

15 April 2026

Claudia Efemini writing for The Guardian:

The AI clone of Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and chief executive, is being trained on his mannerisms and tone as well as his public statements and thoughts on company strategy.

Ostensibly Zuckerberg’s AI clone will allow tens-of-thousands of Meta employees “access” to their CEO, someone whom they never see in person, no matter how long their tenure at the company.

Of course employees won’t actually be interacting with Zuckerberg, something anyone “connecting” with the ai-CEO (does that seem like a good title for such an entity?) will be acutely aware of.

I doubt it’s Zuckerberg’s intention to remain CEO of Meta after his death by way of an AI clone — ignoring for a moment the legalities of such a premise — but the technology Meta is developing has the potential to make the scenario a possibility.

Britons social media use declines, but not because they now write blogs

6 April 2026

Data compiled by Ofcom, being the Office of Communications, Britain’s communications regulator, says 49% of adult social media users now post content, compared to 61% in 2024.

The slow down in publishing content cannot, however, be attributed to an IndieWeb/SmallWeb led switch-over to personal websites or blogs. Unfortunately.

Rather, British social media users are concerned old, long forgotten, posts may surface in the future, potentially causing embarrassment, or hamper their employment prospects, should a recruiter view an old post in the wrong context.

US court finds Meta, Google, failed to warn users of the dangers of their platforms

27 March 2026

Jonathan Vanian, writing for CNBC:

Jurors ultimately ruled in favor of the plaintiff, who claimed that Meta and YouTube’s negligence played a “substantial factor” in causing mental health-related harms. Compensatory damages were assessed at $3 million, with Meta on the hook for 70% and YouTube the remaining 30%. Punitive damages amount to an additional $3 million, with $2.1 million to be paid by Meta and $900,000 by YouTube.

Meta — who all up have been fined just over five million dollars (American) — plans to appeal the judgement. Not on account of the speeding ticket size of the fine (for a company with Meta’s capitalisation that is), but because they “respectfully disagree” with the verdict.

A separate Wall Street Journal article (pay wall) suggested the Los Angeles court decision may trigger numerous legal claims against social media companies, potentially presenting them with an existential dilemma.

An existential dilemma? Can anyone else see these organisations going through some of self reckoning, and changing their ways? No, neither can I.

A day in the life of a world without an internet

1 March 2026

Libraries, letters, street magazines, and face-to-face social networking.

This is how I saw a world without the internet sixteen years ago.

Most very serious.

Adam Mosseri: the old, personal, Instagram feed is dead

5 January 2026

But that’s what Instagram’s (IG) owner wanted of course. Put another way, this means anyone using IG is expected to behave like an influencer, even if they only have a handful of followers.

The comment was made by Mosseri, Head of Meta owned IG, in a year-end presentation (Instagram link), a few days ago. That Mosseri didn’t label his thoughts Instagram Wrapped is a small mercy.

The IG leader also made the point that authenticity is becoming ever harder to gauge, on account of the proliferation of generative AI tools. It doesn’t matter that Meta is playing a part here, what’s important is ascertaining what content posted to IG is genuine, and what is AI generated.

This means more layers of verification, and not just for content, but users also. If that’s not for you, now’s a good time to jump ship. Provided you can establish a presence somewhere else.

But that’s not going to be most people. They have IG pages that their businesses and livelihoods depend upon, and have not realised just how, bit by bit, reliant they’ve become on the platform.

Users may have to pay to post links on Facebook pages. Time to get a website

22 December 2025

Ivan Mehta, writing for TechCrunch:

Over the last week, several users have spotted Meta’s test, which impacts link posting. Social media strategist Matt Navarra noted that users part of the test can only post two links unless they pay for a Meta Verified subscription, which starts from $14.99 per month.

The proposed regime will apply to those who use professional mode on the social network.

Like many website owners, I can post as many links as I want to here, without the need to pay a cent to Meta, or be “verified” by them.

X moves to head-off claim on ‘abandoned’ Twitter branding

20 December 2025

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

Elon Musk’s X is updating its Terms of Service to indicate it still lays claim to the “Twitter” trademark. The move to add this detail to the company’s terms follows an announcement from a Virginia-based startup, which recently filed an application to trademark the term “Twitter.”

No surprises there. Anyone hoping to obtain the rights to the Twitter trademark must know they face an uphill struggle to do so.

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