British author and actor Stephen Fry on Friday compared today’s social media to London’s polluted rivers during a session at the ongoing 19th edition of Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF).

Having left social media for good, the author-actor confessed that he was initially “awestruck” by the potential of social media when people from North Africa and the Middle East challenged corruption.

“Initially, I was the one trying to explain what Twitter could be to people, and they were saying, ‘Well, you’re just telling people what you had for lunch'. I said, ‘No, no, it could be more than that’,” Fry said.

“And there was this period, the so-called Arab Spring, starting in Tunisia and then spreading across North Africa and all the way to Yemen. It all seemed wonderful,” he added/.

However, Fry’s perspective of social media has changed over the years. Comparing it to Britain’s polluted rivers, he said, “I see social media as waterways.”

“Water is a means of communication, pleasure and fulfilment. And this is what social media was, I saw it as rivers of discourse, which, in early days, were pure — you could swim in them, meet people, have fun and carry that pleasure everywhere,” the 68-year-old, known for films like Wilde, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and V for Vendetta, explained.

“Just as real rivers became polluted during the Industrial Revolution, these streams of discourse have become contaminated. You wouldn’t want your young children swimming in them now. They pollute and contaminate the minds of those who enter,” he added.

Fry also warned the audience, saying that “poison” is being pumped into the “metaphorical river” of social media for huge profits, with little concern for consequences.

The five-day literary festival is hosting more than 350 celebrated authors and scholars, including Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq, chess legend Viswanathan Anand, Sahitya Akademi Award winner Anuradha Roy, veteran film critic Bhawana Somaaya, and authors Manu Joseph, Ruchir Joshi, and KR Meera.

The festival will conclude on January 19.