[Tribeca 2024] HACKING HATE -- Investigation Into White Supremacy Fails To Engage

Review by Sean Boelman

More often than not, interesting subject matter is the determining factor in the success of a documentary. However, in some instances, the filmmaker’s approach is so ineffective that it doesn’t matter how compelling its subject or message is — the movie simply isn’t engaging. This is the case with Simon Klose’s Hacking Hate, a film with all the elements to be great but fails to engage or sway the audience.

Hacking Hate follows Swedish journalist My Vingren, who works for Expo, the magazine founded by The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo writer Stieg Larsson. Her career, defined by daring and potentially dangerous investigations into the darkest corners of the internet, has earned her comparisons to the protagonist of that franchise.

This documentary follows Vingren as she conducts an investigation into white supremacy circles on social media by diving deep undercover online using a fake profile. Although this investigation is intended to open viewers’ eyes to the ways in which extremists use these tools to recruit and radicalize individuals into their culture of hate, Vingren's observations aren’t especially revelatory. Instead, the movie offers a rudimentary, doom-and-gloom understanding of online culture.

Stylistically, Simon Klose’s approach to telling this story is accomplished, if almost exactly what you would expect from a documentary of this nature. Its editing is very fast-paced, and the cinematography is very close. It’s clear that Klose wants the viewer to feel like they are part of this “action” happening in the cyber realm.

However, an investigative doc — particularly one that’s only eighty-something minutes long — should easily be able to keep viewers engaged. Unfortunately, Klose seems overly fascinated with the minutiae of the investigation and its logistics instead of the results or its significance. While understanding how Vingren infiltrated these supremacist circles is interesting at first, it quickly becomes almost inaccessibly technical. 

As a result, Hacking Hate doesn't feel particularly timely for a film that deals with such an incredibly urgent subject. Unfortunately, this is the consequence of making a movie about something that evolves as rapidly as social media and online discourse. The case studies used in the film, from Donald Trump’s removal from X to Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform, happened just a few years ago but already feel dated. The result is a cautionary tale about a platform that’s already imploded, eliminating any real feeling of stakes.

Klose’s documentary also makes the mistake of giving the audience too many subjects to follow. The main focus is on Vingren, who is an interesting protagonist in this investigation. However, in trying to flesh out the stories of Anika Collier Navaroli and Imran Ahmed as full-on threads rather than simply interviewing them as experts, Klose causes the entire movie to feel unfocused and underdeveloped.

The conversation that Hacking Hate attempts to spark about the vitriol of online culture is undoubtedly very important and needs to be had. That being said, Simon Klose’s documentary is not as conducive to this conversation as it may seem. It lacks the stakes, urgency, and focus to hammer home its point effectively.

Hacking Hate screened at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, which runs June 5-16 in New York City.

Rating: 2.5/5