The reactions to the BBC’s bizarre Facebook documentary prove that it’s well worth a watch

A documentary on Facebook was on the telly last night, and it was genuinely bizarre.

While Facebook, Google and other tech giants are regularly in the news, they’re rarely the focus of a mainstream documentary. ‘Horizon: Inside the Social Network: Facebook’s difficult year’ promised to tackle the “difficult questions”.

And there are plenty that need tackling. The role Facebook played in the Brexit vote, the role it played in Donald Trump’s election, its role in the spread of hate-fuelling misinformation, a multitude of enormous data breaches, and the company’s tax and advertising practices − the list goes on.

Unfortunately, at times this felt much more like an extended ad for the site. And by the end I was almost sold.

Related: How to delete your Facebook account

The standout moment was undoubtedly the bit where Kyle (no surname given) tried to convince a group of new hires (and viewers at home) that Facebook cares more about society than profits. I kid you not.

“Everything we do, we’re doing to connect people, and we’re doing to try and bring social value in that connection,” he said.

“That means that every product decision that we make is tuned for: ‘Does it do good in the world?’ We’re not a company that’s designed to make money. We’re a company that’s designed to create communities, and let those communities make a difference in the world. We think about money as a secondary thing.”

#Facebook #insidethesocialnetwork @BBCTwo "we don't care about money, that's secondary, we care about people" @facebook best joke of the day lol pic.twitter.com/J10ZOgNqI2

— Harpo Can Talk (@HarpoCanTalk) July 16, 2019

And @HarpoCanTalk wasn’t the only person that couldn’t quite believe what they’d just watched. Here’s a taster of how the documentary went down:

You have to commend Facebook for their ability to get an entire hour of controlled narrative publicity on the BBC. This whole thing has completely glossed over the data breaches and extremism and not paying tax. #insidethesocialnetwork

— Clairey (@claireyfairy1) July 16, 2019

Big tech propaganda on #BBC2 currently. Amazing the perks a company like Facebook can give it's employees when it pays little to no tax on it's massive profits, and receives derisory fines from regulators for misusing customer data. #InsideTheSocialNetwork

— Ciaran (@negative1907) July 16, 2019

What on earth is going on with the BBC? #InsideTheSocialNetwork is just one long puff piece with extremely soft, almost meaningless critical counterpoints.

— ?? Brexit is a con (@WaseemZakir) July 16, 2019

Oh dear, BBC. Who got you to make this appalling programme – did Mark ring you, or did you ring him! #InsideTheSocialNetwork

— Tanja McFadyen (@TanjaMcF) July 16, 2019

If you missed it, don’t worry because it’ll be available to stream on BBC iPlayer for the next 29 days. To tune in now, just follow this link.

It’s well worth a watch, if only for the laughs.

Oh, and if you’re on your holidays and not sure if you’ll be able to access iPlayer where you are, a common workaround is to use a VPN. We’ve rounded up three of the best VPNs for streaming below: