{"id":31251,"date":"2018-02-19T18:06:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T23:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31251"},"modified":"2018-02-19T18:06:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T23:06:27","slug":"kofi-annan-echoes-soros-scaremongery-social-media-threatens-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31251","title":{"rendered":"Kofi Annan Echoes Soros Scaremongery: &#8220;Social Media Threatens Democracy&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"block-zerohedge-page-title\" class=\"block block-core block-page-title-block\">\n<h3 class=\"page-title\"><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2018-02-19\/kofi-annan-echoes-soros-scaremongery-social-media-threatens-democracy\">Kofi Annan Echoes Soros Scaremongery: &#8220;Social Media Threatens Democracy&#8221;<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"block-zerohedge-content\" class=\"block block-system block-system-main-block\">\n<article class=\"node node--type-article node--view-mode-full\" role=\"article\">\n<div class=\"node__content\">\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>Just a few short weeks after billionaire George Soros spoke in Davos, demanding that the European Union <strong>regulate social media<\/strong> because voters\u2019 minds are <strong>being controlled and &#8220;manipulated,&#8221; <\/strong>none other than <strong><em>former secretary-general of the United Nations and Nobel Peace laureate, Kofi Annan, has issued an op-ed very much in support of Soros&#8217; free-speech suppression ideas<\/em><\/strong>&#8230; with very similar phrasing&#8230; and using the same double-speak &#8216;war is peace, ignorance is strength&#8217; narrative to demand the regulation of social media.<\/p>\n<div class=\"max-width-video-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"fitvid177257\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UDmJcEB7O0c\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In his Davos speech (above), Soros claimed the reach of social media firms made them a &#8220;public menace&#8221; while arguing they had led people to vote against globalist causes, including electing President Trump (all his ramblings about &#8220;open societies&#8221; aside)&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>&#8220;They deceive their users by manipulating their attention, targeting them to their own economic interests and (&#8230;) depending on their services (&#8230;) <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The platforms are similar to gambling companies (&#8230;) and force people to renounce their freedom (&#8230;). &#8230;), to renounce what John Stuart Mill called the freedom of thought &#8220;<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And now, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/digital-threats-to-democracy-by-kofi-a-annan-2018-02\">via Project Syndicate<\/a>, Kofi Annan echoes the same sentiment&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em><u>How IT Threatens Democracy<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Social media could be just the start of a slippery slope leading to an Orwellian world controlled by Big Data Brother,<\/strong> accelerated by convergence with the sensors in our devices and rapid advances in artificial intelligence. <strong>Some authoritarian regimes are already marshaling these developments to exercise control on an unprecedented scale.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Internet and social media were <strong>once hailed for creating new opportunities to spread democracy and freedom. <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kofi Annan Echoes Soros Scaremongery: &#8220;Social Media Threatens Democracy&#8221; Just a few short weeks after billionaire George Soros spoke in Davos, demanding that the European Union regulate social media because voters\u2019 minds are being controlled and &#8220;manipulated,&#8221; none other than former secretary-general of the United Nations and Nobel Peace laureate, Kofi Annan, has issued an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[193,204,284,357,3375,1169,822,826],"class_list":["post-31251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-davos","tag-democracy","tag-european-union","tag-george-soros","tag-kofi-annan","tag-social-media","tag-un","tag-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31251"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31253,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31251\/revisions\/31253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}