The u. N now says at least 27 thousand people have been killed in this drug war since july 20, sixteent ri that. The police claim that these deaths are because people fired back, even if they have no gun. We were extremely naive, and began on our facebook page, hash tag, no place for hate. That's when i began collecting data. And we started by looking at how 26 fake accounts could actually influence up to three million other accounts.
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.