Black Mirror Season 5 is perfectly timed with its tackling of social media's ethical obligations

Entertainment Weekly

Season 5 includes the episode "Smithereens," starring Topher Grace as the CEO of a large social media company on a silent retreat as one of his employees is taken hostage by a rideshare driver. The "Smithereens" episode was released hours before the Google-owned YouTube banned "hateful" videos, causing a debate over "deplatforming." Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker weighed on the debate over whether social media platforms should be open or if owners should take more steps to moderate content. “Platforms as they exist — and this goes for YouTube as well — reward extremity and performance,” says Brooker. “And extremity and performance are entertaining. But grandstanding is not useful in terms of debate and social cohesion. Presumably, we’re in a transitional phase we’re moving through as we all together learn how these things work. But in terms of deplatforming, I don’t know. It’s a network, you own the network, what do you want on your network? Do you want that stuff on your network? If you’re just going to let it run unfettered, that is on you. So that’s for them to decide.”