Apple CEO Tim Cook has weighed on the spread of "fake news" on social media saying the trend poses a bigger threat to the US than online ads bought by foreign governments. During an interview with NBC's Lester Holt on Wednesday, Cook said social media is being exploited to "divide" and "manipulate" users.
This week, representatives from Facebook, Google and Twitter are being grilled by lawmakers in US Congressional committee hearings over the role their platforms played in Russia's interference and misinformation campaign during the 2016 election campaign.
But Cook said: "I don't believe that the big issues are ads from foreign governments. I believe that's like 0.1% of the bigger issue. The bigger issue is that some of these tools are used to divide people, to manipulate people, to get fake news to people in broad numbers, and so, to influence their thinking. And this, to me, is the No. 1 through 10 issues."
However, Cook said the social media giants have "learned along the way a lot" since the November election last year.
"We'll probably learn more in those hearings as to the particulars. But I do think that technology itself doesn't want to be good. It doesn't want to be anything," he said. "It's up to the creator of the technology and the user of the technology to make it good."
