Nobel laureate and journalist Maria Ressa, speaking at Wits University on November 19, 2024, sounded the alarm on the power tech companies wield in the global information landscape.
Hosted by the Wits Centre for Journalism (WCJ) and the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), Ressa held an engaging discussion on how journalists can help rebuild trust in an age of disinformation, authoritarianism, and big tech.
“Information warfare has shifted to a cellular level of democracy – any corporation can micro-target you as an individual. It is personal. [Big tech] has essentially hacked our biology to change the way we feel, and this changes the way we look at the world, and changes the way we vote. We are being manipulated,” said Ressa.
In conversation with journalist and editor Katy Katapodis, Ressa reflected on her life as a journalist during which she has been attacked on multiple fronts, particularly through social media. Ressa explained that, as an example, Facebook uses more than 2,300 different sources of hundreds of thousands of data points for each of its users, using machine learning to create a model for each of them that “knows us better than we know ourselves”.
She urged audience members to take back their power from tech companies who continue to shape realities which do not exist. “Replace the word model with ‘clone’ – did you give permission to let yourself be cloned? Microtargeting, the advertising model for social media, is not advertising. It takes your weakest moment to a message based on the probability of your own actions, and sells it to a company or country.”
Katy Katapodis in discussion with Maria Ressa. Image: Chanté Schatz
Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Filipino online publication Rappler, and Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for their exemplary work protecting freedom of expression and exposing abuses of power under authoritarian governments in the Philippines and Russia respectively.
She is now focused on fighting the breakdown of the global information ecosystem, looking at how communities can work together to “hold the line”.
As the gatekeepers and models surrounding social media and generative AI evolve, Ressa stressed that big “tech is not the enemy; the greed of big tech companies is the enemy”.
“This is a US$300 billion a year industry for the top five companies in this space – more than the GDP of some countries. Lies spread six times faster on social media, so look at the incentive structure – if you lie, you get rewarded. If you lace it with fear, anger and hate, you get further rewarded.
Prof Maria Ressa with the Wits Centre for Journalism team. Image: Chanté Schatz
Ressa is currently in South Africa as the chair of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy which meets in Johannesburg this week. Reflecting on a year in which many nations around the world went to the polls, Ressa said, “South Africa actually had one of the most successful recent election periods because its social media penetration rate is less than 45 percent … At the time Americans voted, 6 out of 10 of the voting population between 18 and 35 got their news from social media, which is not anchored in facts.
“Without facts you can’t have truth; without truth you can’t have trust.”
Ressa and Muratov have created the “10-Point Plan”, a manifesto for change in addressing the information crisis faced around the world. It aims to “transform the internet from a space monopolised by profiteering big tech companies to one that puts our rights first”.
Watch the full session below (video starts at 18:20).
