Soros Meltdown in Davos: Facebook, Google and Free Speech's "Days Are Numbered"
The billionaire George Soros has launched a blistering attack on the tech giants Google
and Facebook at the Davos summit which some claim amounts to a call for the total destruction
of freedom of speech on the internet.
In his speech, Soros condemned the social media giants and claimed that their popularity
and �monopolistic behavior� had transformed them into a menace to society which he claimed
was undermining the integrity of national elections and causing addictions which were
similar to that of gambling.
George Soros calls social media a menace to society
Soros�s main gripe was the social media platforms were being used by election campaigners
(and perhaps espionage agents from foreign states such as Russia) for the proliferation
of fake news stories.
According to Soros, the spread of disinformation in the course of the last presidential election
in the United States directly led to the victory of President Donald Trump.
Soros said that Trump�s disastrous presidency was a danger to the entire world and therefore
the mechanisms which brought him to the power needed to be controlled more effectively by
regulatory bodies.
Soros�s proposed solution to his perceived problem of market dominance by Google and
Facebook was to adopt the policies of the European Union competition commissioner Margrethe
Vestager which would entail the social media giants coming under much more rigorous regulatory
oversight.
Soros said that he believed that this course of action would be appropriate because, �the
fact that they are near- monopoly distributors makes them public utilities and should subject
them to more stringent regulations, aimed at preserving competition, innovation, and
fair and open universal access.�
However, not everyone agrees with Soros�s assessment of the situation or his proposed
solution.
Many have suggested that his rant about the social media giants was little more than a
case of sour grapes as his preferred candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost in the last US presidential
election.
It has also been pointed out that Soros in the course of his many past campaigns has
made ample use of the power of social media to influence opinions.
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