Obama warns Facebook and Google are tools for neo-nazis and jihadists

BARACK OBAMA has demanded Facebook and Google change their business models after warning the platforms are being exploited by jihadists and “neonazis”.

The former US president called on the internet giants to realise they are a “public good” rather than simply commercial companies seeking profits. Mr Obama’s comments, given in a closeddoors university discussion, were never meant to be public but a recording of the conversation has leaked.

A recording of Mr Obama’s recent appearance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was published on Reason magazine’s website.

“[It is a] hugely powerful potential force for good and I continue to believe that is the case,” Mr Obama said. “But what is also true is that our social media platforms are just that, they are a tool. And Isis can use that tool and neonazis can use that tool.

“And so I do think that the large platforms – Google and Facebook being the most obvious, but Twitter and others as well that are part of that ecosystem – have to have a conversation about their business model that recognises they are a public good as well as a commercial enterprise. They’re not just an invisible platform, but they are shaping our culture in powerful ways.”

Mr Obama’s comments jar with the argument of the social media companies that they are platforms, which host other people’s content, rather than publishers, who are responsible for what appears in public.

The former president also warned that a “Balkanisation of our public conversation” was emerging where different sets of people listen and talk to only those who share their narrow political views.

“Essentially we now have entirely different realities that are being created with not just different opinions, but now different facts, different sources, different people who are considered authoritative,” he said.