Soros rips Google, Facebook as a menace to Democracy at Davos

Last edited Fri Jan 26, 2018, 03:11 PM - Edit history (1)

Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros called Google and Facebook monopolies in need of regulation, in a blistering speech that added his voice to a chorus calling for major technology firms to be reined in.

In remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Soros called the companies a “menace” and assailed the rise of “ever more powerful monopolies”.

He said “more stringent regulations” were necessary and predicted that their “global dominance” would be “broken”.


“They claim they are merely distributing information. But the fact that they are near-monopoly distributors makes them public utilities and should subject them to more stringent regulations, aimed at preserving competition, innovation and fair and open universal access,” Mr Soros said. He added that governments would need to step in because tech monopolies have “neither the will nor the inclination to protect society against the consequences of their actions”.

He also warned that tech titans could effectively ally themselves with authoritarian regimes in an effort to breach new markets, expanding surveillance and establishing “a web of totalitarian control the likes of which not even Aldous Huxley or George Orwell could have imagined”. A reference to two authors whose books offered dystopian visions of societies that exert total control over their citizens.

“The dictatorial leaders in these countries may be only too happy to collaborate with them since they want to improve their methods of control over their own populations and expand their power and influence in the United States and the rest of the world,” Mr Soros said.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/george-soros-facebook-google-davos-regulation-global-dominance-broken-a8178786.html%3famp


Obviously referencing their role in helping Putin get Trump elected.