Just a few short weeks after billionaire George Soros spoke in Davos, demanding that the European Union regulate social media because voters’ minds are being controlled and “manipulated,” none other than former secretary-general of the United Nations and Nobel Peace laureate, Kofi Annan, has issued an op-ed very much in support of Soros’ free-speech suppression ideas… with very similar phrasing… and using the same double-speak ‘war is peace, ignorance is strength’ narrative to demand the regulation of social media.
In his Davos speech (above), Soros claimed the reach of social media firms made them a “public menace” while arguing they had led people to vote against globalist causes, including electing President Trump (all his ramblings about “open societies” aside)…
“They deceive their users by manipulating their attention, targeting them to their own economic interests and (…) depending on their services (…)
The platforms are similar to gambling companies (…) and force people to renounce their freedom (…). …), to renounce what John Stuart Mill called the freedom of thought “
And now, via Project Syndicate, Kofi Annan echoes the same sentiment…
How IT Threatens Democracy
Social media could be just the start of a slippery slope leading to an Orwellian world controlled by Big Data Brother, accelerated by convergence with the sensors in our devices and rapid advances in artificial intelligence. Some authoritarian regimes are already marshaling these developments to exercise control on an unprecedented scale.
The Internet and social media were once hailed for creating new opportunities to spread democracy and freedom. And Twitter, Facebook, and other social media did indeed play a key role in popular uprisings in Iran in 2009, in the Arab world in 2011, and in Ukraine in 2013-2014. Back then, the tweet did at times seem mightier than the sword.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
