George Soros To EU: Fight Populism, Regulate Social Media

from ZeroHedge:

Echoing a sentiment that was one of the defining points of his hour-long speech to the world’s financial and political elite at Davos, billionaire hedge funder (and supporter of far-left causes from Eastern Europe to the US) George Soros is taking his rhetoric a step further and calling for supranational governments to intervene and regulate Facebook, Google and other large social media websites.

Per Breitbart, Soros is demanding that the European Union regulate social media because voters’ minds are being controlled and “manipulated”.

Soros is claiming the reach of social media firms made them a “public menace” while arguing they had led people to vote against globalist causes, including electing President Trump (all his ramblings about “open societies” aside)…

“They deceive their users by manipulating their attention, targeting them to their own economic interests and (…) depending on their services (…)

The platforms are similar to gambling companies (…) and force people to renounce their freedom (…). …), to renounce what John Stuart Mill called the freedom of thought “

Soros – who recently became the subject of a “anti-Soros” bill in his native Hungary that seeks to limit the activities of groups that for which he’s provided funding – accusations about manipulation are blatantly hypocritical, as anybody familiar with his 30-year campaign to push open borders, multiculturalism and a generally globalist tenor of government would know.

Media websites and populist groups have been prolific on social media, using the platforms to bypass the mainstream media and broadcast their message – which Soros and his allies oppose – across world. Soros has a cozy relationship with the leaders of the European Union, meeting with them 11 times since the Brexit vote. Prime Minister Theresa May, in contrast, has had just three meetings during that period.  She has also mimicked Soros’ call for responsible regulation of social media, but with the aim of suppressing terrorist recruiters.

He then proceeded to cycle through a “greatest hits”-style mix of his favorite rhetoric: Europe is being overrun by the “mafia-state”-style leadership of Vladimir Putin, which President Trump would like to mimic, according to Breitbart.

Due to social media use, he claimed people are losing “freedom of mind”, adding: “This danger does not loom only in the future; it played an important role in the 2016 US presidential election.”

“President Donald Trump would like to establish his own mafia-style state,” he said, claiming the President was part of the same problem as North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-un.

“In the US, regulators are not strong enough to stand up to the monopolies’ political influence. The EU is better positioned, because it doesn’t have any platform giants of its own,” he continued.

“The EU commissioner for competition Margrethe Vestager is the champion of the European approach,” he added, praising the bureaucrat who recently visited Communist Cuba without condemning human rights abuses in the nation.

Mr. Soros, who has been convicted of insider trading, is also suspected of attempting to interfere in U.S. elections, and his name came up around 60 times in emails released by WikiLeaks relating to the recent presidential race.

As we noted previously, the question arises: is Vestager adequately controlled by the European Parliament?

Read More @ ZeroHedge.com