Former President Barack Obama has claimed that the way people consume and share information is eroding democracy around the world, and he blamed the current information ecology, which is fueled by social media corporations, for “turbocharging some of humanity’s worst impulses".
While speaking at Stanford University in Silicon Valley on April 21, Obama said technology corporations must be reined in to combat the “weakening of democratic institutions around the world”.
The former Democratic American President said: “One of the biggest reasons for the weakening of democracy is the profound change that’s taken place in how we communicate and consume information.”
The speech came at a time when Obama has increasingly focused his post-presidential messaging on misinformation and what should be done about big tech’s largely unchecked power. This week, his speech included manipulation of the US presidential elections as well as the rise of anti-vaccination sentiments.
“Some of the current challenges we face are inherent to a fully connected world. They’re also the result of very specific choices made by the companies that have come to dominate the internet generally, and social media platforms in particular," he added.
Obama said social media companies’ decisions regarding content moderation and the use of algorithms to rank posts “have made democracies more vulnerable".
He also described the current period as “another tumultuous, dangerous moment in history," linking widespread...
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