By Ademola Emmanuel Adewunmi
UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaks about the new UN Global Principles on Information Integrity.
UN chief warns tech firm to ‘acknowledge the damage’ their products are causing
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), has called on technology firms to “acknowledge the damage your products are inflicting on people and communities”.
Speaking at the launch of the UN’s Global Principles for Information Integrity, he said that algorithms on social media platforms had the ability to “push people into information bubbles and reinforce prejudices including racism, misogyny and discrimination of all kinds” through opaque algorithms.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, U.S., June 5, 2024
“You have the power to mitigate harm to people and societies around the world,” he said. “You have the power to change business models that profit from disinformation and hate”.
His comments come after several high-profile calls for social media companies to do more to protect vulnerable people, especially children.
Earlier in the month, New York passed legislation to protect children from addictive social media content. Similarly, the US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, called on social media apps to add warning labels reminding users they can cause harm to young people.
Writing in an op-ed for the New York Times, he said that while this would not make the platforms safe, it could increase awareness among young people and influence their behaviour.
And in the UK, a group of parents is calling on social media companies to grant access to their children’s data following their deaths. One ended their life after viewing harmful content, while another may have died after participating in a social media ‘challenge’.