Lawfare Archive: Maria Ressa on the Weaponization of Social Media
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 October 2021
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From October 15, 2020: On this episode of Lawfare's Arbiters of Truth series on disinformation, Evelyn Douek spoke with Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and co-founder of Rappler, an online news site based in Manila. Maria was included in Time's Person of the Year in 2018 for her work combating fake news, and is currently fighting a conviction for “cyberlibel” in the Philippines for her role at Rappler. Maria and her fight are the subject of the film, “A Thousand Cuts,” released in virtual cinemas this summer and to be broadcast on PBS Frontline in early next year.
As a country where Facebook is the internet, the Philippines was in a lot of ways ground zero for many of the same dynamics and exploitations of social media that are currently playing out around the world. What is the warning we need to take from Maria’s experience and the experience of Philippine democracy? Why is the global south both the beta test and an afterthought for companies like Facebook? And how is it possible that Maria is still, somehow, optimistic?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:32.6 | I'm Emily Day in this episode from the LawFair Archive for October 10, 2021. |
| 0:47.3 | On Friday, journalist Maria Reza and Demetri Muratab were awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize |
| 0:53.4 | for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression in the Philippines and Russia. |
| 0:57.9 | So for today's episode, I chose a conversation from October 15, 2020 where Evelyn Duax spoke |
| 1:04.3 | with Reza about the weaponization of social media in the Philippines and around the world. |
| 1:18.3 | I'm Quintedurusic and this is the LawFair podcast. |
| 1:22.4 | October 15, 2020. |
| 1:26.0 | We're bringing you another episode of our Arbitus of Truth series on disinformation. |
| 1:30.6 | This week, Evelyn Duax spoke with Maria Reza, a Filipino American journalist and co-founder |
| 1:36.2 | of Rappler, an online news site based in Manila. |
| 1:40.8 | Reza was included in Times Person of the Year in 2018 for her work combating fake news |
| 1:46.5 | and she's currently fighting a conviction for cyber-libel in the Philippines for her role |
| 1:50.5 | at Rappler. |
| 1:52.3 | Maria and her fight are the subject of the film A Thousand Cuts, released in virtual cinemas |
| 1:57.0 | this summer and to be broadcast on PBS Frontline early next year. |
| 2:01.7 | As a country where Facebook is the internet, the Philippines was in a lot of ways ground |
| 2:06.4 | zero for many of the same dynamics and exploitations of social media that are currently playing |
... |
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