Pope Francis of the Roman Empire warned on Thursday against the dangers of misinformation and its spread via social media and artificial intelligence (AI), cautioning that it could be “misused to manipulate minds.”
In his traditional New Year’s address to diplomats at the Vatican, Francis decried the increasing dispersion of society, “aggravated by the continuous creation and spread of fake news, which not only distorts facts but also perceptions.”
Quoting the 88-year-old pontiff, “This phenomenon generates false images of reality, a climate of suspicion that foments hate, undermines people’s sense of security and compromises civil coexistence and the stability of entire nations.”
The pope’s comments came two days after tech giant Meta—which owns Facebook—announced it was ending its third-party fact-checking program in the United States and adopting a crowd-sourced model to police misinformation similar to that of the Elon Musk-owned X.
Pope Francis, in his remarks directed at political leaders, said, “In our time, the denial of self-evident truths seems to have gained the upper hand.”
He added, “These tendencies can be amplified by the modern communications media and by artificial intelligence; they can be misused to manipulate minds for economic, political, and ideological ends.”
The worldwide head of the Catholic Church since 2013, reiterated the need for media literacy education to promote critical thinking. The speech, which was delivered on his behalf by a senior cleric, noted that Francis had a cold and could not deliver the speech himself.
In the address, the pontiff also cautioned against “cancel culture,” which “tolerates no differences and focuses on individual rights to the detriment of duties towards others, especially the weakest.”
He cited as “particularly worrying” attempts to “manipulate multilateral documents—by changing the meaning of terms or unilaterally reinterpreting the content of human rights treaties—to advance divisive ideologies.”
“In this regard, it is unacceptable, for example, to speak of an alleged ‘right to abortion’ that contradicts human rights, particularly the right to life,” he added.
Francis further warned that multilateral institutions risked becoming “like-minded clubs that only let in those who think in the same way”—and as such, said they “no longer seem capable of ensuring peace and stability.”