Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
- Disney chief exec Bob Iger says that "Hitler would have loved social media."
- The high-profile entertainment exec lashed out at companies like Twitter and Facebook at an awards dinner.
- It shows how the public mood towards social media has shifted — a few years ago, Disney even considered acquiring Twitter.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said that "Hitler would have loved social media" in an aggressive attack on big tech firms like Facebook and Twitter.
Variety is reporting that the high-profile entertainment industry exec spoke out during a speech at an awards dinner hosted by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, lamenting the state of public discourse and laying the blame in part with social media companies.
“Hitler would have loved social media," he is reported to have said. "It’s the most powerful marketing tool an extremist could ever hope for because by design social media reflects a narrow world view filtering out anything that challenges our beliefs while constantly validating our convictions and amplifying our deepest fears.
"It creates a false sense that everyone shares the same opinion. Social media allows evil to prey on troubled minds and lost souls and we all know that social news feeds can contain more fiction than fact, propagating vile ideology that has no place in a civil society that values human life."
Iger’s remarks are indicative of how the public mood has turned against big tech companies, and dramatically so. Companies like Facebook were once lauded, but following years of scandals there has been increasing public and regulatory scrutiny of their practices and their impact on society.
It’s also a significant shift for Iger and Disney’s stance on social media. Back in 2017, the chief exec confirmed that Disney had considered buying Twitter — describing it as a "a compelling way that we might be able to present and sell the content our company makes to the consumer."
You can read the full text of Iger’s remarks at Variety.
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Source: Business Insider – rprice@businessinsider.com (Rob Price)