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- “Saturday Night Live” opened its show mocking the audience of Facebook whistleblowers in Washington this week.
- The cast members portrayed former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and various U.S. senators.
- Haugen testified at a hearing this week criticizing Facebook’s negative impacts on society.
“Saturday Night Live” proves once again that Silicon Valley drama is not off limits to the satirical bite of the series.
The late-night variety show began its October 9 episode, hosted by Kim Kardashian West, with its cold opening C-SPAN covering this week’s Senate hearings from a Facebook whistleblower.
Former Facebook Product Manager Frances Haugen, played by SNL’s Heidi Gardner, answered questions from a panel of Senators, including Senator Richard Blumenthal (Mikey Day), Senator Diane Feinstein (Cecily Strong), Senator John Kennedy (Kyle Mooney), and Senator Ted Cruz (Aidy Bryant).
Cecily’s Feinstein kicked off the proceedings, praising Gardner’s Haugen for his decision to present the allegations on Facebook, before undermining them and citing “higher priority” issues, such as passing a bill on Facebook. infrastructure, the raising of the debt ceiling and the pursuit of the January 6 rioters. .
“As a former Facebook engineer, I am here today because I saw with my own eyes how Facebook products harm children, fuel division and weaken our democracy,” said Haugen de Gardner of a serious tone.
Individual Senators followed up with a slew of random questions on social media, alluding to Senators’ generational disconnect in technology. Cecily’s Feinstein asked if “2,000 Facebook friends” was “a lot”, while Kennedy of Mooney confused an algorithm with a tangible object, asking “how big is this” algorithm “?
Cruz de Bryant also sounded the parallel bullying against the senator’s widespread critical teens online, saying hypothetical Facebook groups like “Ted Cruz Sucks” should be flagged as misinformation.
“Ted Cruz sucks, it’s not really misinformation,” Gardner’s Haugen replied. “It’s just one person’s opinion.”
The real Frances Haugen testified at a Senate hearing this week after revealing herself publicly as the Facebook whistleblower who leaked a wealth of internal documents and research to the Wall Street Journal. The documents highlighted the controversial practices of the tech company, including its focus on profits over dealing with disinformation, extremism and division.
The skit also references the hugely popular
Netflix
show, “Squid Game,” and various memes online, further highlighting the senators’ pop culture joke and social media ignorance.
The cold opening ended with a short-lived appearance from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, played by SNL’s Alex Moffat, before moving on to MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson, whom Mikey Day’s Blumenthal called the “King. OG social media “. In real life, Mark Zuckerberg responded to Haugen’s claims in a 1,300-word statement, saying they “didn’t make sense.”
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