This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shimita Bassu. Today, a cautionary tale about how social media threatens democracy.

Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist Maria Resa wants the world to wake up and pay attention,

specifically to the Philippines.

Because what's happening there, she says, should serve as a warning to all other countries

about the way authoritarian leaders can use social media to intentionally spread disinformation and undermine democracy.

I call it insidious manipulation all the time, but this is a corruption of our information ecosystem,

and frankly, someone should be held

accountable because impunity online is impunity offline.

Maria has been a journalist in Asia for over three decades, working at CNN, then the major

Philippine media company, ABS CBN. Then in 2012 she co-founded Rappler, the top digital news site serving the Philippines.

She's been arrested multiple times, and she faces charges that could put her in prison for

the rest of her life.

She's out now with a new book called How to Stand Up to a Dictator.

In it she lays out a few reasons why the Philippines has been ground zero for the kind of impact

that social media can have on a democratic system. One reason is the Philippines has a

super plugged in population.

When social media came, we were first adapters because

while the United States was still like 35, 40% on mobile, The Philippines was 87% 90% on mobile. And not just plugged in generally, but very much on Facebook.

By the time we set up Rappler, you know, 97% of the Filipinos on the internet were on Facebook.

Facebook was our internet.

It also has cheap labor, a government with a culture of corruption,

and for the last six years an authoritarian political leader vying for more power.

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