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PALO ALTO, California – Former President Barack Obama on Thursday called for greater regulatory oversight over the nation’s social media giants, saying their powers to improve the information people consume are “turbocharged” political polarization and threatening the pillars of democracy around the world.
Focusing on the discussion How to handle the spread of disinformationHe said companies must subject their proprietary algorithms to the same kind of regulatory oversight that ensures the safety of cars, food and other consumer products.
“Tech companies need to be more transparent about how they operate,” Mr. Obama said in a speech at Stanford University, a longtime incubator for the tech industry in Silicon Valley. “Most conversations about disinformation focus on what people write. The bigger issue is what content these platforms support. ”
Former president backs reform proposals An important legal shield for internet companies: Section 230 of the Communications Ethics Act, which protects social media platforms from liability for content posted by their users. Supporters of such a change believe it will force companies to do more to curb illegal or dangerous behavior – from selling drugs to disinformation and having equally harmful consequences.
While praising the transformative benefits of the internet on lives, Mr. Obama urged companies to put social responsibility before the relentless pursuit of profit.
“These companies need a North Star other than just making money and increasing their dividends,” he said.
Mr. Obama spoke at a conference hosted by Stanford’s Center for Cyber Policy dedicated to the challenges the digital world poses for democracy in the United States and beyond. He expressed his effective use of social media as a candidate, and also expressed his disappointment at how Russian President Vladimir V. Putin used social media. Influencing the outcome of the 2016 election.
“Even though I’ve been the target of disinformation, it still bothers me that I don’t fully understand how susceptible we are to lies and conspiracy theories.” certificate. “Putin didn’t do that. He didn’t have to. We made it ourselves.”
Among the attendees were prominent academics, former government officials, as well as representatives of various technology companies, including Alphabet and TikTok, which owns Google and YouTube. In separate discussions, panelists largely agreed on the issue of disinformation and the toxicity and partisanship it fuels, but there was little consensus on which specific solutions would work best or be politically feasible.
Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institute and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford, most recently “Ill Winds: Saving Democracy From Russian Anger, Chinese Greed, and American Complacency.”
On the sidelines, Mr. Obama also met with a smaller group of students and young academics from the university. Obama Foundation. At one point, the founder of the group Gen-Z for Change asked Elise Joshi to explain that TikTok is more than just dance videos.
“It will be your generation that will figure this out,” Mr. Obama told them.
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