BRIEF

ROME: Pope Francis has condemned the greed for “chatter and gossip” and fabricated stories on social media.

“By patching together bits of unverified information, repeating banal and deceptively persuasive arguments, and sending strident and hateful messages, we do not help to weave human history, but instead strip others of their dignity,” the 83-year-old pontiff said on Friday to mark the World Day of Social Communications.

“We need courage to reject false and evil stories.

“How many stories serve to lull us, convincing us that to be happy we continually need to gain, possess and consume. We may not even realise how greedy we have become for chatter and gossip, or how much violence and falsehood we are consuming,” he said. – dpa