Disney CEO Bob Iger on Wednesday night slammed social media companies, saying that Adolf Hitler would have loved to use social media as a marketing tool.
“Hitler would have loved social media,” Iger said while receiving a humanitarian award, according to Variety. “It’s the most powerful marketing tool an extremist could ever hope for because, by design, social media reflects a narrow world view, filtering out anything that challenges our beliefs while constantly validating our convictions and amplifying our deepest fears.”
{mosads} “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,” he continued.
Iger, who is also scheduled to host a fundraiser for 2020 Senate Democrats, according to the magazine, told voters to “demand more” from politicians. Last year, there was speculation that Iger would jump into the 2020 presidential race, but he denied the rumor.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have recently faced criticism for allegedly not doing enough to stop extremist rhetoric on their sites.
Lawmakers on Tuesday grilled executives from Facebook and Google over white nationalism and the movement’s use of tech, at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. The role of social media in fueling white nationalism has faced renewed scrutiny following a New Zealand mass shooting, as the suspected shooter allegedly posted a white nationalist manifesto online.