Disney CEO Bob Iger says, 'Hitler would have loved social media'

Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger has attacked social media for its role in spreading hate.

According to Variety, while accepting an award for his humanitarian work at the Simon Wiesenthal Center tribute dinner, Iger said: “It’s the most powerful marketing tool an extremist could ever hope for.

“By design, social media reflects a narrow worldview, 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 made the comments as he picked up the 2019 Humanitarian Award.

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Iger succeeded Michael Eisner as CEO of Disney in 2005, after joining as President and COO in 2000.

He was being honoured by the centre, a global human rights organisation that says it “confronts anti-Semitism,” and “teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations.”

The Disney chief shared his thoughts about social media after US lawmakers and tech giants met on Capitol Hill for a House Judiciary Committee hearing scrutinising the spread of white nationalism and hate speech through social media platforms.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center was set up in the name of Simon Wiesenthal, a survivor of the Nazi death camps.

He dedicated his life to hunting down the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Wiesenthal tracked down nearly 1,100 Nazi war criminals, including Adolf Eichmann, a senior Nazi.