President Obama suggested "fake news and false information" being spread on social media played a role in Donald Trump's victory.
Speaking at a press conference in Lima, Peru, Sunday night, Obama spoke about the threat of foreign hackers meddling in U.S. elections. While this is a threat, he conceded, the greater risk is the free flow of false information being shared on social media.
Here's a transcript:
As I have said before the concern I have has less to do with any particular misinformation or propaganda that is being put out by any particular party and a greater concern about the general misinformation from all kinds of sources -- domestic, foreign, on social media, that make it very difficult to voters, for voters to figure out what's true and what's not. And, and, let me put it this way: I think if we have a strong, accurate and responsible press, and an engaged we citizenry, than various attempts to meddle in our elections won't mean much.
If generally we've got elections that are not focused on issues and are full of fake news and false information and distractions, then the issue is not going to be what is happening from the outside, the issue is going to be, what are we doing to ourselves from the inside? The good news is that is something we have control over. All right?