Obama warns online platforms stoke anger and fear but says extremism “not inevitable”

Speaking to a crowd of 12,150 at the OVO Hydro, in conversation with British journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera, the 44th president of the United States reflected on his time in the White House and examined the political and social challenges facing the US and the wider world. The event is part of three speaking dates in the UK. Obama has already appeared in Belfast and will speak in Manchester on Thursday night.

Obama said that during his 2008 presidential campaign, when social media and technology were gaining traction, he saw them as a beacon for hope. But he said the same positive forces and tools that could mobilise people around democracy or human rights could also be used by hate groups.

They “connected people for good, but also for ill,” he said.

“It turns out that the reptilian side of our brain really gets attracted to anger, fear, resentment and the sense that someone is out to get you. So a lot of social media and a lot of our information is informed around that.”

He pointed to the period after World War Two, when the US and European governments set rules because, in his words, “we've seen what propaganda can do in the hands of somebody like Hitler.”

Analysis

Why This Matters

A former US president is using a UK stage to argue that the forces polarising democratic politics are not unstoppable, giving mainstream weight to concerns usually heard from researchers and regulators.
The diagnosis applies beyond the US: Obama explicitly linked the American experience to European history, including the post-war response to propaganda.
The tour's remaining date in Manchester offers another chance to hear whether the former president moves from diagnosis to prescription.

Background

Obama served two terms as US president between 2009 and 2017, and his 2008 campaign was remembered for its early embrace of social media as an organising and fundraising tool. His Glasgow remarks mark a shift in how that optimism has aged. Over the past decade, public debate in the US and Europe has increasingly focused on algorithmic amplification of outrage, misinformation and extremism, and governments on both sides of the Atlantic have introduced or considered rules governing online platforms.

Key Perspectives

Barack Obama: Argues that social media and other information tools “connected people for good, but also for ill,” and that the same technology which mobilised democratic movements can serve hate groups. He insists the outcome is not fixed, citing post-war rule-making as evidence that societies can respond to propaganda with deliberate regulation. UK audiences: The sold-out Glasgow event and the three-city tour suggest significant public appetite for hearing a former US leader reflect on the state of democracy, in a country where online safety has been an active political question. Social media platforms: The companies criticised in the speech have not been reported to have responded, and the source records no counter-argument from the technology industry to Obama's characterisation of their products. Sceptics: A sceptical view, not recorded in the source, would note that repeated public warnings about polarisation and platform-driven outrage have not yet produced the kind of systemic change Obama describes as achievable.

What to Watch

Obama's Manchester appearance on Thursday night, the final UK date, and whether he offers concrete policy ideas alongside his diagnosis.
Whether any major online platform responds publicly to being described as reliant on anger and fear.
How the remarks are taken up in UK political debate, where the regulation of social media companies remains unsettled.

Analysis

Why This Matters

Background

Key Perspectives

What to Watch

Sources