Facebook a threat to democracy: Nobel Peace Prize winner compares Zuckerberg to 'dictator', says report
File photo.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Filippino-American journalist Maria Ressa has compared Facebook's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg to a dictator. Speaking to the BBC last Saturday (May 27), Ressa said that Facebook is a threat to democracy and that social media users are handcuffed to it. "The rise of the former Philippine president Duterte, illiberal leaders, and the destruction of our institutions within six months, was hand in hand with the power of Facebook."
Talking about her book "How to stand up to a Dictator", which was published last year, Ressa asked, "Which dictator am I talking about? Who has greater power? (former) president Duterte in the Philippines or Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook?"
Ressa pointed out that 100 per centof Filipinos on the internet are on Facebook. "Facebook is our internet. So the decisions of these tech giants, the CEOs of these companies determine what our world is," she added.
Ressa also mentioned a 2018 study done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which said that false news travel faster than true stories.
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Nobel Peace Prize winner has been critical of Facebook
Maria Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. She is the co-founder of Rappler- the Philippines' biggest independent news outlet. Ressa has criticised Facebook in the past and said the social media giant was "biased against facts."
In 2016, Ressa contacted Facebook with details concerning the rampant threats targeted via Facebook at people, predominantly women in the Philippines who were critical of the drug war waged by then-president Rodrigo Duterte, according to a report by Vox.
A year later, she met Mark Zuckerberg and said that 97 per cent of Filipinos are on Facebook. She invited the Facebook CEO to come to the Philippines to "understand the impact" of this. "Oh well. What are the other 3 per cent doing, Maria?” Zuckerberg replied.
In February this year, Ressa urged users to stay on Facebook, "despite all its problems with disinformation."
“If good people leave Facebook, what happens to the rest of the people on Facebook? If people who want facts leave social media, what happens to the people who stay on social media? That includes our younger generation…. I’ll give you a quick answer – I don’t believe you should [quit Facebook],” Ressa said during a book signing event on February 16.
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