Disney CEO calls social media a "powerful marketing tool" for extremism
Disney boss Bob Iger criticized social media platforms to allow hatred to spread, saying they allow the distribution of misinformation and the spread of "evil ideology".
Iger referred to social media as something Hitler "would have loved" according to Variety while accepting a humanitarian award earlier today from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights non-profit named after a Holocaust -survivor. He added that social media is the "most powerful marketing tool an extremist could ever hope for." Social media is designed to reinforce "our deepest fears," according to Iger, while "constantly validating our beliefs."
"It makes a false sense that everyone shares the same perception," Iger said. "Social media allow evil to swap troubled thoughts and lost souls, and we all know that social news feeds can contain more fiction than fact, propagation of boring ideology that does not fit in a civil society that values human life."
His comments came at a time when Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google and Instagram are being accosted to allow hate ideologies to spread around the world and not do enough to stop dangerous conspiracy theorists from playing their algorithms. All the aforementioned companies have admitted that they can do better, and have introduced a number of policy changes and platform changes to try to combat the abuse of their products.
Iger is not the first CEO to acknowledge that more can be done to prevent the spread of hate on the web. Apple CEO Tim Cook called out white supremacists while accepting his "Courage Against Hate" award from the Anti-Defamation League in December. Cook told white supremacists and "dangerous conspiracy theorists" that they did not have a home on Apple's services. His comments did not come so long after Apple removed Alex Jones & # 39; Infowars from the App Store. Iger is sitting at the Apple table. Neither Apple nor Disney owns social media platforms.
"We only have a message for those trying to create hatred, division or violence: You have no place on our platforms," Cook said.
Iger also spent his time on stage to ask people in the room to "resign and reject hat in all forms."
