--- title: Barack Obama: Fake News Threatens Democratic Freedoms description: The U.S. President has publicly denounced the spread of fake news on Facebook and other social-media platforms canonical: https://time.com/4575981/barack-obama-fake-news-democracy-facebook/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-18T06:17:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:54:17.849Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama: Fake News Threatens Freedom og:description: The outgoing U.S. leader has denounced the spread of fake news on social media og:url: https://time.com/4575981/barack-obama-fake-news-democracy-facebook/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf667ba7343dbeec/6988aefef887dc278be9844f/gettyimages-623862392.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US President Obama in Berlin og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama: Fake News Threatens Freedom twitter:description: The outgoing U.S. leader has denounced the spread of fake news on social media twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf667ba7343dbeec/6988aefef887dc278be9844f/gettyimages-623862392.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Barack Obama Says Fake News Is a Problem for 'Democratic Freedoms' by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 18, 2016 6:17 AM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a joint press conference with Germany's Chancellor after their meeting in in Berlin on Nov. 17, 2016 U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a joint press conference with Germany's Chancellor after their meeting in in Berlin on Nov. 17, 2016Michelle Tantussi—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 18, 2016 6:17 AM UTC President Obama has [publicly denounced the spread of fake news on Facebook](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/17/barack-obama-fake-news-facebook-social-media) and other social-media platforms, which he said could compromise democratic freedoms. [Speaking at a news conference](https://mediamatters.org/video/2016/11/17/president-obama-theres-so-much-active-misinformation-looks-same-actual-information-when-its-facebook/214518) in Berlin on Thursday, Obama said, “If we are not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not … if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems.” “If everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won’t know what to protect. We won’t know what to fight for. And we can lose so much of what we’ve gained in terms of the kind of democratic freedoms and market-based economies and prosperity that we’ve come to take for granted,” he said. The President’s comments come at a time when Facebook and other social-media platforms are under scrutiny for failing to prevent the spread of conspiracy theories and propaganda packaged as news. Fake news on Facebook generated more user engagement than real news in the run up to the U.S. presidential elections [according to one](https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook?utm%5Fterm=.cpMXE9Z1j#.hi6Z0VgRW) [analysis](https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/viral-fake-election-news-outperformed-real-news-on-facebook?utm%5Fterm=.cpMXE9Z1j#.hi6Z0VgRW). Last week Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dismissed the notion that fake news on the social media had influenced the outcome of the U.S. election as “[pretty crazy,](http://time.com/4567775/mark-zuckerberg-election-donald-trump-fake-news-facebook/?xid=time%5Fsocialflow%5Ftwitter)” and asserted that voter decisions were “based on their lived experience.” However, earlier this week both Facebook and Google — whose algorithms have also proved [susceptible](http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/14/13622566/google-search-fake-news-election-results-algorithm) to fake news — announced plans to [choke the ad revenues](http://time.com/4570923/google-facebook-fake-news-websites-advertising-revenue/) of fake news sights. **_(Gifts:_** [**_The 100 Most Influential Images of All Time)_**](http://shop.time.com/storefront/subscribe-to-time/link/1039114.html?xid=cm-TIMEShopscTIMEArticle) [In a TV interview](http://fortune.com/2016/11/16/fake-news-election-google-sundar-pichai/), Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said, “From our perspective, there should just be no situation where fake news gets distributed.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4575981/barack-obama-fake-news-democracy-facebook/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4575981/barack-obama-fake-news-democracy-facebook/"},"headline":"President Barack Obama Says Fake News Is a Problem for 'Democratic Freedoms'","datePublished":"2016-11-18T06:17:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:54:17.849Z","description":"His comments come as social-media platforms are under scrutiny for failing to prevent the spread of misinformation","url":"https://time.com/4575981/barack-obama-fake-news-democracy-facebook/","keywords":["Technology","Barack Obama","Google","facebook","U.S.","fake news"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf667ba7343dbeec/6988aefef887dc278be9844f/gettyimages-623862392.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf667ba7343dbeec/6988aefef887dc278be9844f/gettyimages-623862392.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US President Obama in Berlin","caption":"US President Obama in Berlin","creditText":"Michelle Tantussi—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/technology/","name":"Technology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4575981/barack-obama-fake-news-democracy-facebook/","name":"President Barack Obama Says Fake News Is a Problem for 'Democratic Freedoms'"}}]}] ```