Maria Ressa knows what happens if you take on a dictator. When the Philippine digital news site Rappler, which she co-founded in 2012, began to investigate then-President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, Maria found herself the target of a state-sponsored campaign of harassment and arrests, with an army of online trolls sending hate messages.
But Maria’s courage and refusal to bow to intimidation earned her international recognition: in 2021, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first Filipino to receive it. Now she’s a globally recognised figure battling to save journalism and democracy from Big Tech and AI.
Maria tells Sangita Myska that we are now living in an “information Armageddon”.
“The technology that rules our world literally doesn’t care about facts,” she says. “In fact, lies spread faster than facts – and if you lace it with fear, anger and hate, it goes viral.”
In this fascinating and in-depth ‘Sangita Meets…’ interview, Maria explains how tech and state power are increasingly merging to become what she calls “the authoritarian stack”, how Big Tech is cloning us for profit and how algorithms are designed to radicalise and polarise us.
“We are living and standing on the rubble of the world that was. If we don’t act like that and put the laws in place that will protect citizens from manipulation, we lose it all,” Maria explains.
Ressa also speaks about:
What it means to be frenemies with Mark Zuckerberg
How Facebook’s friends-of-friends algorithm “destroyed democracy”
Why we should be worried about Palantir and the UK’s NHS data
How we can reclaim our power and defend ourselves before it’s too late
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You can also find episodes of ‘Sangita Meets…’ wherever you get your podcasts.
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