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After a long silence, former US President Barack Obama has spoken out, stating that social media platforms are well-designed to destabilise democracies.
Speaking at a Stanford University event late on Thursday, Business Standard reported that Obama called the present "another tumultuous, dangerous moment in history".
"Disinformation is a threat to our democracy, and will continue to be unless we work together to address it," he said.
Obama, who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, expressed worry about Russian election meddling in 2016 and the invasion of Ukraine.
“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," Obama emphasised.
"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.
According to TechCrunch, Obama stated that while we are reaping what social media businesses have sowed, it may not be too late to make new choices.
“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.