Obama: Social Media’s Falsehoods have Potential to Break Down Democracy

President Obama, speaking in Germany while hanging with Angela Merkel, commented that the falsehoods on social media have the potential of breaking down democracy. See article from CNET here.

Obama:

“If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not and particularly in an age of social media where so many people are getting their information in sound bites and snippets off their phones… If we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda then we have problems.”

“If people, whether they’re conservative or liberal, left or right, are unwilling to compromise and engage in the democratic process and are taking absolutist views and demonizing opponents then democracy will break down.”