Can’t Look Away review – a harrowing, heartbreaking indictment of social media’s ruthlessness

The news article "Can't Look Away" is a harrowing and heartbreaking indictment of the ruthlessness of social media platforms. It follows a small legal outfit, the Social Media Victims Law Center, as it takes on the powerful Silicon Valley companies for endangering young users. The article highlights internal Facebook documents that reveal the company's cynicism and focus on hooking young people to its platform, even if it means exposing them to harmful content. The article also covers the proliferation of drug dealers on Snapchat, which the company seems to have turned a blind eye to in its quest for expansion. The film is based on the investigative work of Bloomberg journalist Olivia Carville and represents a host of families who have suffered heartbreaking losses due to unpoliced extreme online content. These include children and teenagers who fatally copied auto-asphyxiation or pro-suicide videos, ones who killed themselves after falling victim to sextortionists, or who overdosed after buying off-prescription meds from predatory dealers. The battle here is to overcome section 230 of the 1996 Telecommunication Act, which gives social media companies immunity for third-party-generated content.