32 2GM Friday April 8 2022 | the times
Wo r l d
A tidal wave of disinformation pushed
by social media is destroying democracy
in the US, Barack Obama has warned,
saying tech companies are “monetising
resentment, conflict and division”.
If there were no agreement on basic
facts, there could be no discussion of
ideas, the underpinning of a democratic
society, the former president said.
America’s political divisions have
deepened in the social media age, with
two big issues driving increased polari-
sation between Democrats and Repub-
licans: the handling of the pandemic
and the 2020 election result.
Hostilities that began online have
spilt over into violence, notably the
attack on the Capitol on January 6 last
year by a mob of Donald Trump sup-
porters, as social media sites are con-
sumed by angry debate over what
divides, rather than unites, the country.
In July, President Biden voiced his
frustration at Facebook “killing people”
with false information about Covid-19
vaccinations, though he has stopped
short of proposing legislation.
Social media giants say they have
spent billions of dollars on “safety and
security” but appeared unable — and,
Obama suggested, in some cases un-
willing — to stop the disinformation.
The companies’ product design
“monetises anger, resentment, conflict,
division and in some cases makes
people very vulnerable... and can lead
to violence,” Obama told a conference
on disinformation hosted by the Uni-
versity of Chicago Institute of Politics
and The Atlantic.
“It’s something I grappled with a lot
during my presidency. I saw it sort of
unfold, and that is the degree to which
information, disinformation, misinfor-
mation was being weaponised,” he said.
This was most noticeable “toward the
end of my presidency”, he said — prob-
ably a reference to the 2016 election
that led to the election of Trump, which
saw a surge in social-media campaign-
ing and fakery including the Cam-
bridge Analytica profiling scandal. Fa-
cebook was fined $5 billion for allowing
surreptitious data harvesting. The In-
ternet Research Agency, a Russian troll
group, tried to influence the election by
creating accounts to push positive in-
formation on Trump and negative de-
tails on his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Misinformation is “wrong informa-
tion” but disinformation is “a system-
atic effort to either promote false
information, to suppress true informa-
tion, for the purpose of political gain,
financial gain, enhancing power, sup-
pressing others, targeting those you
don’t like,” said Obama, 60. “We saw it,
but I think I underestimated the degree
to which democracies were as vulnera-
ble to it as they were, including ours.
“It is difficult for me to see how we
win the contest of ideas if we are not
able to agree on a baseline of facts thatallow the marketplace of ideas to work.”
At a 2018 Senate hearing on the elect-
ion, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook
chief executive, said: “It’s clear now that
we didn’t do enough to prevent these
tools from being used for harm as well.
That goes for fake news, foreign inter-
ference in elections, and hate speech, as
well as developers and data privacy.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view
of our responsibility, and that was a big
mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sor-
ry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m
responsible for what happens here.”
In July, he appeared to step back from
taking responsibility for curbing disin-
formation, however, saying: “A system
like this, it’s a bit like fighting crime in aTwo people were killed and seven
wounded last night when a gunman
opened fire on drinkers in an area of Tel
Aviv known for its nightlife. The attacks
took place on Dinzengoff Street, a
crowded street at the heart of the city,
filled with bars and cafés. At least one
other shooter, who police believe is Pal-
estinian, has yet to be found.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emer-
gency service said it received reports of
a shooting at several scenes around
downtown Tel Aviv and that two men
aged about 30 were killed. Another
seven people were wounded, three of
Tech giants are monetising
anger and hate, says Obama
Donald Trump sought to deflect
blame for the attack on the Capitol
by a mob of his supporters by
pointing the finger at Nancy Pelosi,
the top Democrat in Congress.
Trump said Pelosi was jointly
responsible with Muriel Bowser, the
mayor of Washington, for security
on January 6, 2021 and that the two
women should have done more to
stop the violence.
The former president’s latest spin
on his actions on that day — and
his failure to call sooner for his
supporters to stop their rampage —
came in an interview with The
Washington Post.
Congress had been due to
confirm Trump’s election
defeat by Joe Biden, but
proceedings were held up for
hours by his supporters
after a rally in which
he told them he
would march with
them to the
Capitol. Instead he‘Capitol riot is Pelosi’s fault’
returned to the White House. The
riot was widely seen as a display of
the fury unleashed by Trump’s
persistent and false claims that the
2020 election was rigged and stolen
from him.
“I thought it was a shame, and I
kept asking, ‘Why isn’t she doing
something about it? Why isn’t
Nancy Pelosi doing something
about it?’ ” Trump told the Post.
“And the mayor of DC also. The
mayor of DC and Nancy Pelosi are
in charge,” he said.
Trump, 75, added: “I hated seeing
it [the riot]. I hated seeing it. And I
said, ‘It’s got to be taken care of’,
and I assumed they were taking
care of it.”
Day-to-day security at the
Capitol is provided by the
sergeants-at-arms of the
House and Senate, in co-
ordination with the Capitol
police. The sergeants-
at-arms report to the
House Speaker,
Pelosi, and the
Senate majority
leader, who at the
time was Mitch
McConnell, a
Republican.David CharterUnited States
David Charter Washington
Roaming gunman kills two in Tel Aviv bar district
them seriously, it said. The attacks
began at nine in the evening when
a gunman opened fire at customers in
Ilka bar on Dizengoff Street.
“My shift was just about to begin,”
said Hadar, a waitress at the bar.
“Suddenly the window shattered as we
heard shots from outside. We began
pulling customers down to the floor and
behind the bar.”
The gunman then fired more shots at
another restaurant door and made his
escape. Witnesses were unclear whe-
ther he was acting alone.
Initial police reports said that the
suspect had been chased down and shot
in a nearby building site, but police be-
lieve there is another shooter still atlarge. Teams of anti-terrorism police
and squads from military commando
units were quickly deployed in central
Tel Aviv to begin house-to-house
searches.
Nine people were taken to hospital.
Two who were critically injured died
shortly afterwards. Four more were
being treated for gunshot wounds,
according to the hospital.
Dizengoff Street has been the scene
of several deadly attacks over the years,
most recently when an Arab citizen of
Israel shot and killed two Israelis and
wounded several others in 2016.
A police spokesman said: “We believe
this was a terror attack, though we’re
looking at other angles as well. We arecurrently concentrating on searches
in the surrounding streets for the shoot-
er.”
This is the fourth serious terrorist
attack within Israel in the space of just
over two weeks. Eleven people were
killed in the previous three attacks in
Beer Sheva, Hadera and Bnei Brak.
Israeli police used heavy-handed
tactics to dispel Palestinian protesters
who had gathered near Damascus Gate
in eastern Jerusalem and were cheering
the attack.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, did not
take responsibility for the attack but
said “armed attacks in the heart of Tel
Aviv prove that organised resistance
can penetrate Israel’s security system”.Israel
Anshel Pfeffer Jerusalem
One of Spain’s most renowned chefs
has defended a dish that simulates a
human embryo floating in its amniotic
fluid after it was criticised by anti-
abortion groups and the Catholic
Church.
Andoni Luis Aduriz, who runs the
two Michelin-starred Mugaritz restau-
rant near San Sebastian, was targeted
after pictures were put on social media
of the dish, which is known as Origin.
A priest in Getafe, near Madrid,
labelled it “demonic” and the Institute
for Social Policy, an anti-abortion asso-
ciation, threatened to sue him unless heA
recently discovered
drawing by
Michelangelo is
expected to sell for
€30 million when it
goes on sale in Paris next month
after France lifted an export block
in an attempt to acquire it for the
state (Charles Bremner writes).
The large drawing in two tones
of brown ink of a nude man
standing between two figures dates
from the late 15th century, when
the artist was at the start of his
career in Florence.
It was bought in Paris in 1907
when it was attributed to the
Michelangelo school. In 2019 it
was identified as the work of the
Renaissance master himself after it
was spotted by Furio Rinaldi, the
former Old Masters specialist at
Christie’s, the auction house.
Cécile Verdier, head of Christie’s
France, said the firm was “deeply
honoured by the opportunity to
present a work of this magnitude”.
She hailed “a major discovery in
the history of art... a momentous
event for the art market”.
An attempt to sell the drawing
was suspended when the French
culture ministry declared it a
national treasure. The ministry
failed to raise the funds for the
asking price within the deadline,
meaning the export bar was lifted.
The drawing is based on the
shivering man depicted in
Masaccio’s Baptism of the
Neophytes fresco in Florence.Michelangelo
nude stands
to make €30m
‘Embryo dish’
Spain
Charlie Devereux MadridMichellanggelo
Donald Trump
said he “hated”
seeing the riotcity. No one expects that you’re ever
going to fully solve crime in a city. The
police department’s goal is not to make
it so that if there’s any crime that hap-
pens, that you say that the police depart-
ment is failing. That’s not reasonable.”
Obama called for more transparency
from the social media giants over the al-
gorithms that direct information to
users, as well as more concern for the
impact on democracy. Platforms such
as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
“appear to have some insight into what’s
more likely to prompt insurrectionists,
white supremacists, misogynist behav-
iour and internet bullying”, he said.
“We don’t want to be policing every-
thing that’s said on the internet, but
what they haven’t been forthcoming on
is what their product designs are. There
are ways in which a democracy can
rightly expect them to show us... in the
same way than any other product.”
Trump threatened to end a crucial
legal protection for social media com-
panies that shields them from being
held legally accountable for disinfor-
mation. Section 230 of the Communi-
cations Decency Act 1996 establishes
them as platforms rather than publish-
ers, unlike traditional print, broadcast
and online news media, which can be
sued for what they publish.
Trump’s section 230 review in 2020
was attacked by opponents as damaging
to free speech protections in the First
Amendment, and seen as an act of re-
venge after Twitter began flagging his
posts for falsehoods or contested ma-
terial. It did not lead to law changes.
Biden, 79, has avoided the section 230
debate but in January made a “ special
appeal” to social media companies on
Covid misinformation. “It has to stop.
Covid-19 is one of the most formidable
enemies America has ever faced.”
6 Letitia James, the New York attor-
ney-general, called on a court in the
city to find Trump in contempt yester-
day, claiming that the former president
had failed to turn over documents sub-
poenaed under her investigation into
alleged fraud within the Trump Orga-
nisation. Trump had been ordered to
“comply in full” with the civil probe this
year, but James said in her motion that
the former president “did not comply at
all” with the subpoena.