Nobel Peace winner Maria Ressa slams US social media giants for fuelling hate after accepting award
- The Rappler co-founder attacked the technology industry that ‘has allowed a virus of lies to infect each of us’
- Ressa, a critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, said facts and truth were at the heart of solving the biggest challenges facing society today
Ressa, the co-founder of news website Rappler who won this year’s prize together with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, attacked the technology industry which “has allowed a virus of lies to infect each of us, pitting us against each other, bringing out our fears, anger and hate, and setting the stage for the rise of authoritarians and dictators around the world.”
“Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that’s coursing through our information ecosystem, prioritised by American internet companies that make more money by spreading that hate and triggering the worst in us,” she said.
“What happens on social media doesn’t stay on social media. Online violence is real world violence,” Ressa added.
Ressa said facts and truth were at the heart of solving the biggest challenges facing society today.
“Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with our world’s existential problems: climate, coronavirus, the battle for truth.”
