Obama Says Social Media Platforms Weakening Democracies, Urges Tighter Rules

Obama, who served as the 44th US President from 2009 to 2017 said, "disinformation is a threat to our democracy, and will continue to be unless we work together to address it."

Former US President Barack Obama (Getty Image)

New Delhi: Former US President Barack Obama on Thursday criticised the use of social media and talked about its perils saying that such platforms are well-designed to destroy democracies.

Giving a speech at Stanford University on “Challenges to Democracy in the Digital Information Realm”, Obama outlined the threat that disinformation online, including deepfake technology triggered by AI, poses to democracy.

Threat to elections, legal system, democracy 

“Without some standards, implications of this technology – for our elections, for our legal system, for our democracy, for rules of evidence, for our entire social order – are frightening and profound,” noted Obama, according to the website of the university. “I’ve already seen demonstrations of deep fake technology that show what looks like me on a screen, saying stuff I did not say. It’s a strange experience people,” added Obama.

Obama termed the present "another tumultuous, dangerous moment in history".  Obama, who served as the 44th US President from 2009 to 2017 said, "Disinformation is a threat to our democracy, and will continue to be unless we work together to address it," he said as per the news agency IANS.

The way I’m going to evaluate any proposal touching on social media and the internet is whether it strengthens or weakens the prospects for healthy, inclusive democracy. pic.twitter.com/jmPMO28KMU

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 22, 2022

Raising concerns about Russia's 2016 election interference and the invasion of Ukraine, Obama said, “People like Putin, and Steve Bannon (Donald Trump's senior advisor) for that matter, understand it's not necessary for people to believe (misinformation) in order to weaken democratic institutions".

"You just have to flood a country's public square with enough raw sewage. You just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plan enough conspiracy theorising, that citizens no longer know what to believe," he added.

While we are reaping what social media companies have sown, it may not be too late to make different choices, said Obama, according to TechCrunch.

"Not all problems we are seeing now are an inevitable byproduct of this new technology. 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 noted.

Solution to online disinformation

The former President also offered solutions for combating online disinformation, including regulation, which many tech companies fiercely oppose.

Solving the disinformation problem won’t cure all that ails our democracies or tears at the fabric of our world. But it can help rebuild the trust and solidarity needed to make democracy stronger.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 22, 2022

He stated the ways in which these problems might be addressed in the United States and abroad. Governments and technology companies should be willing to introduce changes aimed at improving civil discourse online and reducing the amount of disinformation on the internet, said Obama.