// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Obama says drift towards extremism 'not inevitable'
Barack Obama warned that online platforms were stoking anger and fear in people
Barack Obama has told an audience in Glasgow that hope is worth fighting for despite big challenges facing the modern world.
The 44th president of the United States said online platforms had shifted in recent years to focus on content that stoked anger and fear, but he believes a drift to extremism is "not inevitable".
The comments came as he addressed an OVO Hydro crowd of 12,150 people while in conversation with British journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera, part of three speaking dates in the UK.
He reflected on his time in the White House and examined the political and social challenges facing the US and the wider world.
Obama said that during his presidential campaign in 2008, when social media and technology was gaining traction, he had seen them as a beacon for hope
But he said the same positive forces and tools that could mobilise people around democracy or human rights could also be used by hate groups.
He said they "connected people for good, but also for ill".
"It turns out that the reptilian side of our brain really gets attracted to anger, fear, resentment and the sense that someone is out to get you," he said.
"So a lot of social media and a lot of our information is informed around that."