Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated that social media are dangerous for the democracy and referring to “intensity and manner of criticism he added that social media “have brought to the fore a toxicity.”
A few months ago, he had brought the same argument while speaking at the Parliament.
In an interview with daily kathimerini on Sunday, Mitsotakis said that social media create a problem in democracies.
“The truth is that Social Media ultimately brings us in contact with people who believe the same things as us. Because that ultimately sells. Their algorithms are designed this way. This creates the phenomenon of echo rooms, where in essence we only hear views that match ours,” he said.
He added “This is a key problem of democracy, which I believe should be of general concern to public debate and how we listen to the different of view and how we can discuss civilly, disagree, possibly strongly but without insults, without extreme features, without personal targeting and killing of characters that have unfortunately become the norm now. And it is a problem of democracy.”
PS Prime ministers better deal with the real problems of the country and refrain from attempts to approach social media with deeply thoughtful analysis. Before we orbanize totally in a country where mainstream media have been subsidized by the government to praise the leadership form morning till late at night.
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He’s got a point. Because sometimes I read on social media that he’s not as good as he thinks he is.
hah, he could do with hearing something from beyond his own echo room.. or is he trying to turn the entire country into his private echo room?
Hear hear!
I think social media are dangerous for everything, not only democracy
Hear hear !!! Especially Fakebook is the devil in disguise, the new Antichrist, and should be declared illegal today (the only ‘problem’ with this is that hundreds of thousands Fakebookers will take their own lives, because they are completely hooked to the platform, can not live without it, do not have REAL friends and have forgotten how to communicate in a healthy way).
Thank you for illustrating what communicating in a healthy way looks like, for us.
Social media makes powerful institutions very nervous…so whatever its drawbacks may be, its a very useful tool in my opinion. Also, social media, as a general term for the medium, is much, much bigger than the typically referenced facebook, twitter, etc.
Greek PM is dangerous for democrazy
But this is not new in Greece. Surely every village had 3 cafés so that Pasok, ND and KKE supporters would only need to talk to people who held the same views?
Well, he is in his own echo chamber. What a madhouse, Greece sadly seems to be losing its marbles. As much as it hurts me (as a half Greek) and I thought I’d never say this, visiting is currently not an option for me. 😔
Personally I don’t think social media is the problem, it’s just a catalyst. The real problem is that people aren’t taught as children how to properly question statements, nor how to properly research information.
Social media is only a problem because way too many people believe everything they read on there. Not only that, but people actively seek out posts that support the twisted opinions they have already formed and feel vindicated. There is also a deep desire to be among the ‘informed minority’. Believing that you’re part of a small ‘elite’ who are the only ones to know the ‘real truth’ is an intoxicating feeling.
If children and young people were given the skills and tools to better question what they read and the knowledge on how to properly research a topic they would be able to form opinions that are based on real facts instead of made up ones.
Social media can be a great aid to democracy by informing more people, but the people have to have the skills to separate the real information from the myths.
Mr. Mitsotakis has a strange perception of democracy. Aren’t freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by democracy? In dictatorships or fascist regimes, no one is allowed to speak their mind, except if in praise of the regime. Maybe the PM would prefer that to real democracy.
Mitsotakis has no conception of democracy, I am sure. The matter does not concern him in the least, until it threatens his personal position and financial interests. To be fair, I do not think that there is a single prime minister or head of state in Europe who is interested in democracy. They are aware that the economies of Europe are crumbling, that there is massive social discontent, that they have all failed miserably in their handling of a minor infectious disease (that is portrayed by the mass media as a contemporary Black Death), and the global warming looks set to destroy not only our environment and living conditions but probably the survival of the human species. Within a decade or two, only the rich will be insulated from the terrible impacts of climate change: they have already made it clear to politicians — either you are with us, or you die like the rest of the rabble.
So, forget democracy. In the near future, we should feel lucky to have something as mild as Nazi-style fascist government!
Social media is in its nature a giant echo chamber. And the social media platforms are working hard to keep it that way, in favor of their shareholders and advertisers, by censorship and suppression of free speech.