It is an unleashed George Soros who shows up in Davos for the World Economic Forum 2018. It has something for everyone: Silicon Valley, Bitcoin, Trump, Putin. In particular, the scourge of the legendary financier of Hungarian origins falls upon Google and Facebook: “The days are numbered – he maintains – Taxes and rules are on the way. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will be their nemesis”.
For Soros, when it comes, the fall of the web giants will be good, because "social media groups exploit the social context, take away thought autonomy and induce addiction: they influence the way people think and behave, without no one notices."
Not only that: "Their extraordinary profitability is largely a function of the fact that they avoid liability for content, which they do not pay". Social media companies "deceive their users by manipulating their attention and directing it towards their commercial goals, deliberately causing addiction to the services they provide, which is very dangerous, especially for teenagers".
Soros believes that, “in our digital age, social media companies are causing people to give up their autonomy. And people without freedom of thought can be manipulated easily. It is a current danger and has already played an important role in the US presidential election.
Yeah, the White House: “I think theTrump administration is a danger to the world – continues Soros – But I consider it a passing phenomenon that will disappear in 2020 or even earlier. In this year's mid-term elections I expect a clear victory for the Democrats.
And then, surprisingly, Soros' sights shift to the Bitcoin. Precisely he, the speculator who in 1992 caused the Italian lira to leave the EMS with a heavy attack, today throws himself against the main cryptocurrency because it is too speculative: "It is a bubble based on a misunderstanding and it is not a currency" . Indeed, it is a tool for money laundering and dictatorships, in fact – he remarks – it interests the Russians: “Vladimir Putin he runs a mafia state and Trump would like to do the same but the constitution doesn't allow him to do it”, says the 87-year-old on his peaceful day in the Swiss Alps.
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