The public life of The Social Dilemma: Silicon Valley’s mea culpa moment and the rise of tech-dissidents

The 2020 documentary film The Social Dilemma, produced by Netflix, is one of several examples of Big Tech critiques that have emerged in recent years. At the time of writing, it is the second most watched documentary Netflix has ever released, reaching 38 million viewers in 28 days. The film provides a scathing condemnation of Facebook, Google, and others, and acts as an admission of guilt for former central figures in the industry. The fact that Netflix, a Big Tech company itself, produced the film gives it an ambivalent status. In this chapter, we present a qualitative analysis of how the The Social Dilemma was received on social media, comparing its reception in the US and Denmark. We highlight how dominant discourses were composed both of praise for the film’s main message as well as critiques of its creators. Such critiques display a widespread scepticism of both positive and negative portraits of Big Tech coming out of Silicon Valley.