Former President Barack Obama said the way voters consume and share information is weakening democracies around the world and blamed the current information ecosystem on social media companies for “turbocharging some of the worst impulses.” of humanity “.
“One of the main reasons for the weakening of democracies is the profound change that has taken place in the way we communicate and consume information,” Obama said.
Speaking at Stanford University on Thursday, Obama said the current information ecosystem is deepening existing racial and religious divisions, although he added that not all of the problems of modernity are a byproduct of the advancement of technology.
“Some of the current challenges we face are inherent in a fully connected world,” Obama said. “They are also the result of very specific choices made by companies that have come to dominate the Internet in general and social networking platforms in particular.”
Obama said social media companies’ decisions about moderating content and using algorithms to rank posts “have made democracies more vulnerable.”
The former president said he understands that social media companies need to make money, but added that it is a concern that “inflammatory and polarizing content attracts and compromises.”
The leaked internal documents of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, last year showed that researchers on the platform were aware of its algorithms. pushed users to posts that contained misinformation.
Facebook researchers have long known that bad actors play with the system and manipulate the algorithms of the platform. According to a December 2019 note, Facebook researchers noted that users “put increasingly outrageous things to get comments and reactions that our algorithms interpret as signals that we should let things go viral.”
The former president said it is impossible for many Americans to distinguish between a peer-reviewed article by Dr. Anthony Fauci and a miraculous cure presented by a “market.”
Obama said the coronavirus pandemic is a good example of how “the very design of these platforms seems to be tipping us in the wrong direction.”
“Although we have now clinically tested the vaccine on billions of people worldwide, about one in five Americans is still willing to put themselves at risk and put their families at risk instead of people are dying because of misinformation, “Obama said.
He highlighted the threat of misinformation and misinformation in recent public appearances, but on Thursday he responded to what he characterized as the comprehensive way in which misinformation is affecting democracies abroad and in the US.
He said that without some standards and railings provided by regulators, the consequences for society are “terrifying”. While Obama challenged social media companies to be part of the solution, he noted that social divisions around race, culture and religion were not created by companies like Facebook and Twitter.
There may be “design flaws” and “bugs” in the software, but he added that he is “convinced that it is possible to preserve the transformative power and promise of the open Internet while at least mitigating the worst of its damage.” .
Obama was the subject of a disinformation campaign during his presidency when right-wing white nationalists claimed he had not been born in America. The White House finally he handed over a copy of his birth certificate to calm the false rumors.
In recent months, Obama has met with academics, researchers, former regulators, and industry leaders to discuss the threat of misinformation. He has blamed social media platforms for elevating falsehoods as much as truths.
At a conference earlier this month at the University of Chicago and The Atlantic, Obama said society needs to find a balance between making money on social media platforms and engaging in harmful practices.
He repeated that message on Thursday. Obama said that while he believes social media companies are genuine in limiting the dangers of their product, they still have a financial incentive to keep users engaged.
“These companies are still too vigilant about how exactly their standards work, or how their engagement rating systems influence what goes viral and what doesn’t,” Obama said.
He said decisions that affect billions of users should not be left to large social media platforms alone and require regulatory oversight. Social media companies have been able to avoid scrutiny, at least in part because of it Section 230 of the Law of Decency in Communication.
This is the law that ensures that social media companies are not responsible for the posts posted on their platforms by users and third parties. Washington DC lawmakers have not been able to find a way to reform the law despite the introduction of various invoices by bipartisan lawmakers last year.
Obama said he is not convinced that Section 230 should be completely repealed, but called for reforms to the law that take into account technological advances and changes brought about by social media platforms.
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