Italy Pope warns against data concentration and manipulation
In a time "marked by disinformation and polarization", Pope Francis has called for reality not to be reduced to slogans.
24.01.2025, 13:30
SDA
A few centers of power control an unprecedented amount of data and information, explained the 88-year-old Francis, without, however, referring specifically to platforms such as X or Facebook.
"All too often, communication today does not generate hope, but fear and despair, prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred. All too often it simplifies reality in order to provoke instinctive reactions," warned the head of the Catholic Church on Friday in view of World Social Communications Day. "It uses words like a blade; it even uses false or deliberately distorted information to spread messages that are intended to stir up emotions, to provoke, to hurt."
Francis called for communication to be "defused" and freed from aggression. "We all see how - from television talk shows to the verbal wars on social media - the paradigm of competitive thinking, antagonism, the desire to dominate and possess, and the manipulation of public opinion threatens to gain the upper hand," wrote Francis, admitting: "It is really not easy to hope."
"Planned diversion of attention"
There is another worrying phenomenon that can be described as the "planned diversion of attention" by digital systems. This changes our perception of reality "by creating a profile of us according to the logic of the market". "As a result, we are witnessing - often helplessly - a kind of atomization of interests, which ultimately undermines the very foundations of community, namely the ability to work together for the common good, to listen to each other and to understand each other's motivations."
