We live in a time where social media is quickly surpassing television, print and radio as both entertainment information and news sources meaning those who control what is and isn’t shown hold an immense amount of sway over public opinions in a forum which has been until now left unchecked – only really being exposes and taken seriously in the Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year. Given that over 87 million users affected by it, the scandal saw sweeping reviews on data privacy but also calling a number of high profile recent political decisions into question – Donald Trump’s election as president and the 2016 Brexit vote to name but a few.
With the scandal now all but resolved and firmly out of the public eye, Dispatches looks at Facebook’s role in it and goes undercover to take a look at those who control what can and can’t be shown on the world’s most expansive social network. The investigation looks at how those decisions are made and explores the impact that they have on the millions of people who use Facebook.
Inside Facebook: Secrets of the Social Network – Tuesday 9:00pm on Channel 4.
