MUNICH: The head of the United Nations on Friday called for technology firms to stop profiting from the proliferation of toxic content after accusing social media platforms of complicity in fuelling racism and anti-Muslim bigotry. "Tech companies should assume their responsibilities and stop profiting from the amplification of toxic content of all kinds," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
"We are witnessing an intolerable explosion of religious and racial hatred," said Guterres, who has repeatedly expressed concern about the power of social media companies and called for regulation to improve transparency. "Divided societies are weak societies where extremist narratives can take hold and tensions quickly escalate into violence, undermining democratic values," he said.
Social media companies have said they have taken a range of steps to remove harmful content from their platforms, particularly since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7. Guterres lamented that the international community is becoming more and more divided despite"existential challenges" like climate change and the threat of artificial intelligence run amok.
"Even the Cold War era was, in some ways, less dangerous," he said, citing the ability of the United States and Soviet Union to work on nuclear arms reduction despite being rival superpowers. "Today, in our multipolar world, we still face the nuclear danger. And we are dealing with two more threats with existential dimensions: the climate crisis, and the risks of uncontrolled artificial intelligence." He said the world has struggled "to take effective steps" on any of these potentially humanity-destroying risks.
"Today we see countries doing whatever they like, with no accountability," Guterres said, blaming a lack of "strong global institutions." Guterres has warned Israel of the consequences of embarking on a major ground offensive in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip city that is overflowing with more than 1.3 million Palestinians displaced by war.
He said that Rafah sits "at the core" of the UN's humanitarian operations in Gaza and that a large-scale Israeli military operation there would have far-reaching consequences. "An all-out offensive on the city would be devastating for Palestinian civilians who are already on the edge of survival," he said.
"I have repeatedly called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and a humanitarian ceasefire. That is the only way to massively scale up aid delivery in Gaza," Guterres said. He described the humanitarian operations in Gaza as "on life support" and "barely functioning." "The level of death and destruction is shocking in itself. The war is also spilling over borders across the region and affecting global trade," he continued. — AFP and dpa
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