CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin grilled historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, a contributor for the globalist World Economic Forum (WEF), over his contentious proposals for social media.
During the Sept. 9 edition of Squawk Box, Sorkin pushed back against Harari’s call for social media companies to be held liable for content promoted by their algorithm, particularly when it comes to suppressing or amplifying what Harari deemed “unreliable information.”
Sorkin brought up contrasting perspectives by asking for Harari’s thoughts on X owner Elon Musk’s vision for free speech and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s regret over censoring legitimate content once dubbed misinformation.
Recounting the Zuckerberg-tied censorship, Sorkin said, "Some of the information that their algorithm was effectively suppressing during the pandemic as it relates to COVID and vaccines and all sorts of other things.”
Sorkin pressed Harari further, “And so the question is should the algorithm be suppressing certain information or not, right? This goes to the sort of Elon Musk-argument which is to say ‘Just let it all out there and that we are smart enough to figure it out?’”
Harari, the author of Homo Deus, has claimed that "history began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods.” Tellingly, Harari has also referred to human rights as “fictional” stories.
Harari’s remarks during the interview were similarly disturbing. He fretted that social media companies appeal to “freedom of speech” as an excuse to evade responsibility for their algorithms.
In response to Sorkin’s pointed questions, Harari repeatedly compared Big Tech’s algorithms to editorial decisions made by media outlets such as The New York Times. By this logic, he claimed that X and Facebook should be liable for the content their algorithms promote, though he constantly denied supporting the censorship of users.
Sorkin brought up Musk’s defense of free speech, but Harari was dismissive. When Sorkin asked him whether algorithms should “be suppressing certain information,” Harari provided an evasive yes.
Harari repeatedly suggested that companies like X and Facebook should cease operations if they are unwilling to distinguish between “reliable” and “unreliable information.”
The WEF contributor said, “But as the manager of a major media company that decides what the attention where the attention of the public goes, you have a responsibility to know how to tell the difference between reliable and unreliable information.”
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