Black Mirror’s “Hated in the Nation” Encompasses the Power of Networks
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Black Mirror Recap: “Hated in the Nation” is a Honeycomb of Mysteries
Black Mirror is a popular show on Netflix where each episode has its own story. There are entirely new characters each episode and a new plot. The episode ‘Hated in the Nation’ displays the danger Social Media can introduce.
The story takes place in London where apparently there is a bee extinction. So, a company makes electronic bees that operate the same way as real bees, that increase in population exponentially at their 3D printing hub that acts as a hive. A hacker is able to take over the database and he can control all of the bees without the company knowing. He creates a game, where whoever is the shame of the Public Eye dies. Random people tweet #DeathTo with the name of the person and a picture. Whichever person gets the most tweets gets killed after 5 PM each day and the game restarts the next day. The person gets killed by a bee, where the bee is able to attack a person’s brain and influence them to self-harm themselves.
The game came to light when the intelligent hacker made many spam accounts and tweeted the video of instructions for the game along with the hashtag. The game grew exponentially and eventually, 400,000+ people were involved. The game ended when the government was able to track down the hacker’s hard drive. The hacker was able to set up a program where once the government takes control, they would be able to disable the bees. However, what ended up happening was that everyone that participated in the game would die as a way for them to own up to their consequences. So, when the government attempted to disable the bees, all of the bees attacked whoever participated.
This plot is a perfect example of networks. As the bees created their own network by increasing their population at their hives, and the hacker took advantage of social media by using spam accounts to get the word out about the game.