“social media can destroy democracies”

Barack Obama is critical of the way social media works. He believes that social media platforms can be abused to undermine a democracy. The former president does say that initiatives by regulators, such as the Digital Markets Act in the EU, are a step in the right direction.

Obama on social media

Former United States President Barack Obama spoke on Thursday about the current state of social media services and expressed himself very critically. He attended a Stanford Cyber ​​Policy Center event co-hosted with the Obama Foundation.

In his explanation, Obama spoke of his concerns about social media, including reference to Russia’s possible meddling in the US presidential election and to the current war in Ukraine. Obama believes that the current functioning of social media can contribute to the fall of a democratic country. According to him, we are in “a heady and dangerous moment in history”.

‘Spreading enough dredged material’

“People like Putin and Steven Bannon [Voormalig stafchef van het Witte Huis onder Donald Trump, nvdr.] know that people don’t necessarily have to believe information to shake a democracy,” Obama said. “You just have to spread enough rubbish, question things, and plot conspiracies so that people no longer know what to believe.”

“Putin has understood this in the run-up to the 2016 election and our own social media platforms can support such a strategy. In the battle between truth and falsification, and when it comes to collaboration or conflict, our social networks send us in the wrong direction. direction. We are now seeing the consequences of that.”

Digital Markets Act

Still, Barack Obama emphasizes in his explanation that it is not too late to turn the tide. He also says that social media also has positive qualities that the negative consequences are often the result of choices made by a number of specific companies that he believes control the internet.

Obama also talks about the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union, which he believes is a step in the right direction. The DMA is a new legislation that tightens the reins on social media and has far-reaching consequences. For example, messaging apps will no longer be closed platforms and you can reach a friend on WhatsApp with, for example, Telegram.

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Image: Obama at American University, Will White, CC BY 2.0