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Maria Ressa Takes on Dictatorship & Viral Disinformation

 


by Marisa De La Villa

When people think of Maria Ressa, they tend to picture a Philippine journalist, and now Nobel Prize winner, in court, battling against strongman Rodrigo Duterte’s government.1 Yet, while her clashes with Duterte made global headlines, Ressa was fighting a different battle– one against Facebook (among other social media platforms, especially those under META).2

In 2012, Ressa co-founded Rappler, a small, digital newsroom based in Manila, built on the idea that social media could help increase civic participation.3 In the Philippines, most people went to Facebook as the way to access the internet– Rappler was made to lean into that idea, but it never grew to outshine the Meta platform. To the untrained eye, Facebook was perfect. But in 2016, Ressa and her team noticed some patterns.4 Networks of strange accounts were on the rise, posting the same memes, boosting pro-government propaganda, and overall, there was a growing wave of disinformation on the feed. It wasn’t something organic, it was totally coordinated.5 

Rappler’s focus shifted into the investigation of how these networks operated, tracing how fake accounts and joke pages were used to manipulate public opinion. They found that these weren’t just harmless memes, they were boatloads of digital propaganda, directly shaping how people thought and voted.6 Facebook’s algorithm, which is supposed to promote engagement, prioritized emotional and divisive content, helping spread lies and hatred across the platform.7

When Rodrigo Duterte came to power that same year, his campaign was perfectly positioned to take over this digital space. His violent rhetoric against journalists and drug users settled comfortably against this space already filled with fear, anger, and violence.8 Rappler’s reports on unlawful killings and online manipulation painted a massive target on the newsroom, making Ressa the major focus of these attacks. The online harassment she faced soon transformed into legal harassment, with multiple cases filed against her and her organization, ranging from cyberlibel to tax evasion.9

Ressa has often stated that the real battle is against the technology that helped enable Duterte’s rise. Facebook, which was meant to be a tool for connection, became “a weapon against truth,” prioritizing profit over democratic responsibility.10 

Recently, Ressa’s criticism has extended to the growing role of artificial intelligence, warning that AI could further distort reality due to the way they easily spread false or biased information.11 For Ressa, this is only the next stage where this fight for truth will take place in.12

Maria Ressa’s story might have unfolded in the Philippines, but the implications of her struggle reach far beyond those borders. Her struggle against authoritarian power and technological exploitation only emphasizes the importance of defending democracy not only in the streets or courts, but within the very algorithms that define what we see, believe in, and understand as truth. 


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