Rapler is started with 12 people. Within three years, we grew to almost a hundred people. Filippino spend the most time on the internet, even though the speed is so horrible. We spend at least ten hours a day on the internet,. 10 hours a day. I watch it's like oxygen to me. So i knew, like a titration experiment, you know, when something is slightly off. The weaponization of social media really didn't happen until after he was elected president. But sexually, why i find your story so fascinating is because it starts with this appreciating technology as an accelerate for democratic forces and the excitement of more democratic media.
Maria Ressa is arguably one of the bravest journalists working in the Philippines today. As co-founder and CEO of the media site Rappler, she has withstood death threats, multiple arrests and a rising tide of populist fury that she first saw on Facebook, in the form of a strange and jarring personal attack. Through her story, she reveals, play by play, how an aspiring strongman can use social media to spread falsehoods, sow confusion, intimidate critics and subvert democratic institutions. Nonetheless, she argues Silicon Valley can reverse these trends, and fast. First, tech companies must "wake up," she says, to the threats they've unleashed throughout the Global South. Second, they must recognize that social media is intrinsically designed to favor the strongman over the lone dissident and the propagandist over the truth-teller, which is why it has become the central tool in every aspiring dictator's playbook.