Nobel winner Ressa blasts social media giants for 'toxic sludge'
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OSLO • Accepting her Nobel Peace Prize yesterday, Philippine journalist Maria Ressa launched a vitriolic attack against American tech giants, accusing them of fuelling a flood of "toxic sludge" on social media.
Ms 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," she added.
"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."
Ms Ressa, whose website is highly critical of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, is the subject of seven lawsuits in her country that she says could put her in jail for 100 years.
Mr Muratov said journalism in Russia was going "through a dark valley", with over a hundred journalists, media outlets, human rights defenders and non-governmental organisations having been branded as "foreign agents".
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
