Social media platforms 'designed' to weaken democracies, says Barack Obama

Social media platforms are well-designed to wreck democracies, said former US President Barack Obama. Speaking at a Stanford University even late on Thursday, he called the current moment "another tumultuous, dangerous moment in history."

"Disinformation is a threat to our democracy, and will continue to be unless we work together to address it," said Obama, who served as the 44th US President from 2009 to 2017. 

He also raised concerns about Russia's interference in the 2016 US presidential elections as well as the Ukraine invasion. 

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"People like Putin, and Steve Bannon (Donald Trump's senior advisor) for that matter, understand it's not necessary for people to believe (misinformation) in order to weaken democratic institutions," Obama highlighted.

"You just have to flood a country's public square with enough raw sewage. You just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plan enough conspiracy theorising, that citizens no longer know what to believe," he further stated. 

Obama highlighted that while we are reaping what social media platforms have sown, it may not be too late to make different choices. 

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"Not all problems we are seeing now are an inevitable byproduct of this new technology. They're also the result of very specific choices made by the companies that have come to dominate the internet, generally, and social media platforms in particular," Obama stated.

Continuing in his hour-long speech, he further expressed that "the very design of these platforms seems to be tilting us in the wrong direction. And we're seeing the results."