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Maria ressa is arguably one of the bravest journalists working in the philippines to day. When a terrorist organization abducted her journalist colleagues, maria herself negotiated for their release. She's taken her arguments to the heart of silkon valley and worked directly with the inventors of social media,. pointing out not only its flaws, but how could be so much better. We will all pay the price, unless we act quickly to fight what maria first saw in facebook and then later watched it spilled onto the streets, into ballot boxes and even into the highest chambers of government.

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.