The Antisocial Network is an important Netflix documentary if you want to understand the more underground side of what we all experience in the form of social media. Not Facebook, not Instagram, not even Letterboxd… but sites like 4chan where people come to feed the trolls. It’s not particularly unique or new information but it does put it all together… even if some of it gets a little tenuous in its second half.
The doc covers how 4chan came to be and the rise of the early memes… including this one (of course) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ (don’t click on it! Come back!). The story evolves from that gem to the rise of the image memes, Anonymous vs. Scientology, Habba Hotel, Occupy Wall Street, (sigh) GamerGate, Trump, (double-sign) QAnon, and more.
The film interviews people who purport to be behind a lot of the early days of the site and some of these movements. Whether they are who they say they are, I don’t know… maybe the doc is one big disinformation campaign… or maybe it’s genuine. Call Alex Jones!!! <side note: do not call Alex Jones>.
The first half is a pretty straight line of cause and effect with the talking heads discussing how the group split into genuine social warriors and the trolls… the rise of whatever in hell was going on with Habbo Hotel and Nazi salutes. But it starts to get a bit more hazy when it comes to later events. Less about 4chan and more into broader concepts of reality distortion fields, alternative facts, fake news, and echo chambers.
While I think the more important second half of the doc is good, the earlier information and the sense of things going off kilter was far more interesting. It makes a great unstated argument that this whole Internet thing seems like fun but has basically ruined society and social discourse. Which… yeah (he said while writing a review on a social media website).
This is a very good doc that puts it all together… information you may or may not already know. It’s not like the details aren’t out there already and, frankly, I bet the only people who watch it already know at least half of it. Too bad it will probably be lost or dismissed by those who need a reality check though.
Score: 85