Pope Francis warned on Thursday, January 9, about the dangers of misinformation and its spread through 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, the pope highlighted the growing polarisation in society, exacerbated by the creation and dissemination of fake news, which he said “not only distorts facts but also perceptions.”
“This phenomenon creates false images of reality, fosters a climate of suspicion that breeds hate, undermines security, and destabilises civil coexistence and entire nations,” the 88-year-old pontiff noted.
His remarks came just two days after Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced the end of its third-party fact-checking programme in the United States in favour of a crowd-sourced model to monitor misinformation, similar to the approach taken by Elon Musk’s X.
Addressing political leaders, Francis warned: “In our time, the denial of self-evident truths seems to have gained the upper hand.”
He added, “These tendencies can be amplified by modern communication media and artificial intelligence, which can be misused to manipulate minds for economic, political, and ideological purposes.”
The pontiff, who has led the Roman Catholic Church since 2013, stressed the importance of media literacy to foster critical thinking. Due to a cold, Francis did not deliver the speech himself, and it was read by a senior cleric.
In his address, the pope also criticised “cancel culture,” describing it as intolerant of differences and overly focused on individual rights at the expense of responsibilities to others, especially the most vulnerable.
He expressed concern over attempts to “manipulate multilateral documents by altering the meaning of terms or reinterpreting human rights treaties unilaterally to promote divisive ideologies.” Specifically, he called it “unacceptable” to claim an alleged “right to abortion” that contradicts the fundamental right to life.
Francis further warned that multilateral institutions risk turning into “like-minded clubs” that exclude differing views, undermining their ability to maintain peace and stability.
