Nobel laureate warns of big tech and disinformation threats to democracy

Nobel laureate warns of big tech and disinformation threats to democracy

26 November 2024 - Daily Maverick

Nobel laureate Maria Ressa believes South Africa's traditional media is strong, but that won't last, posing an ongoing threat to democracy.

"Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without these three, we don't have a shared reality. We cannot begin to solve any problems, and we cannot have democracy," said Maria Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, at a discussion at Wits University last week on big tech, authoritarianism and the reality of global disinformation.

Big tech's leverage

While Ressa's discussion at Wits was focused on how journalists could regain public trust in the face of increased global polarisation, an overall decrease in trust in the media, and big tech's leverage over social media, a large part of the lecture focused on big tech's role in the information landscape.

"Information warfare has shifted to the cellular level of democracy. What do I mean by that? Geopolitical power. Any corporation can go down to you, the micro target, so it becomes personal," said Ressa.

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