In interview with Prince Harry, Obama warns against divisive social media use

Former President Obama speaks with Prince Harry
(Image credit: BBC Radio 4 Today/Twitter/Screenshot)

In his first extensive interview since leaving office, former President Barack Obama told Britain's Prince Harry, who was guest editing BBC Radio 4's Today program, that leaders should avoid using social media to divide people.

Without directly mentioning President Trump, who has used Twitter to criticize him and others, Obama warned that the internet can "lead to a Balkanization of society" if it is used to reinforce prejudices instead of informing them. "All of us in leadership have to find ways in which we can recreate a common space on the internet," Obama said. "One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities. They can be cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.