2021 노벨평화상 언론인(마리아 레사)의 경고... “민주주의 적은 소셜미디어”

1.

 

노벨평화상 언론인의 경고... “민주주의 적은 소셜미디어”

마리아 레사/Rappler, Beth Frondoso

 

< 조선일보 윤상진 기자,  2022.12.16  >

 

소셜미디어가 민주주의의 ‘희망’으로 여겨지던 시기가 있었다. 2010년 튀니지에서 시작되어 아랍권 국가로 퍼져나간 반정부 민주화 시위 ‘아랍의 봄’이 일 때였다. 작년 노벨평화상 공동 수상자이자, 2012년 필리핀의 탐사보도 전문 매체 ‘래플러(Rappler)’를 설립한 필리핀 언론인 마리아 레사(59)도 그렇게 믿었다. 하지만 2016년 로드리고 두테르테 정권 출범 이후, 그는 페이스북(메타)을 비롯한 소셜 미디어를 통해 정권 지지자들의 조직적인 공격을 받으며 온라인 플랫폼이 민주주의를 위협하는 무기가 될 수 있음을 온 몸으로 느끼게 됐다.

그는 이번 신간 회고록 ‘권력은 현실을 어떻게 조작하는가’(북하우스)를 통해 소셜 미디어와 알고리즘 등의 기술 발전이 어떻게 민주사회에 위협이 되는지를 세밀히 기록했다. 작년 노벨위원회는 그에게 노벨평화상을 수여하며 “평화의 전제 조건인 표현의 자유를 수호하기 위해 노력했다”고 평했다. 래플러를 이끌며 두테르테 전 대통령의 ‘범죄와의 전쟁’ 정책과 부패 문제를 추적해 온 그를 16일 줌 인터뷰로 만났다.

2021년 스웨덴 오슬로에서 열린 노벨평화상 시상식에서 연설하는 마리아 레사. 그는 이날 연설에서 소셜미디어에 대해 "독성 쓰레기의 홍수"라며 글로벌 IT 기업들을 비판했다.  

 

마리아 레사는 36년 차 베테랑 저널리스트다. 필리핀에서 태어난 그는 유년 시절 미국으로 건너가 프린스턴대를 졸업한 뒤, 1980년대 후반 고국으로 돌아와 CNN 동남아 지국에서 처음 기자 일을 시작했다. 90년대 동남아시아는 격동의 시기를 겪고 있었다. 필리핀에서는 쿠데타 시도가 끊이지 않았고, 인도네시아에선 31년간 철권 통치를 이어갔던 수하르토가 실각한 뒤 수천 명이 죽고 다치는 인종∙종교 갈등이 벌어지고 있었다. 그는 수많은 시신을 봤던 당시보다 지금 상황이 기자로서 어려운 시기라고 말했다. 

 

“언론 환경을 놓고 본다면, 수십 년간의 기자 생활 중 지금이 가장 좋지 않죠. 90년대에는 언론의 ‘게이트키퍼’ 역할이 작동했습니다. 대중은 언론사들이 전달하는 검증된 정보를 얻었지만, 지금은 소셜미디어 때문에 그 기반이 완전히 바뀌었죠.” 그는 책에서 “소셜미디어가 민주주의를 천 갈래로 찢어놨다”고 표현했다. “조회수를 노린 ‘나쁜 기사’가 좋은 기사를 압도하는 상황이 민주주의를 악화시켰습니다.”


좋은 기사가 사장(死藏)되는 상황은 두테르테 대통령의 등장과 함께 시작됐다. 2016년 래플러가 “두테르테의 ‘범죄와의 전쟁’이 지나친 사상자를 낳고 있다”는 문제를 제기하자, 곧 지지자들의 테러가 이어졌다. “정부의 표적이 된 후에는 길을 걸을 때도 방탄조끼를 입고 다닙니다.” 두테르테가 대중 연설을 통해 래플러를 비난하면, 지지자들이 래플러에 대한 허위 사실과 음모론을 유포하는 등 조직적으로 온∙오프라인 공격을 가하는 과정이 이어졌다. “저를 ‘두테르테를 비난하는 사람’으로 낙인찍는 사람들이 있는데, 그에게 개인적인 감정은 없습니다. 다만 그의 정책으로 목숨을 잃은 사람들의 이야기를 전하려고 했던 것이죠. 단순히 ‘몇 명이 죽었다’는 식으로는, 상황의 심각성이 느껴지지 않기 때문입니다.” 필리핀인권위원회 조사에 따르면, 2016년부터 2018년까지 두테르테 정권이 벌인 ‘초법적 처형’으로 목숨을 잃은 사람은 약 2만7000명으로 추정된다.

 

마리아 레사는 두테르테 정부의 실정(失政)을 밝히는 기사를 쓴 뒤 대통령궁 출입이 금지됐고, 명예훼손 등의 혐의로 수많은 소송에 휘말려있다. 그에게 구형된 형량을 합치면 100년이 넘는다. 그럼에도 그는 언론인이 된 것을 한 번도 후회한 적이 없다고 했다. “신입 기자 시절, 3개월 마다 거처를 옮겨야 했을 정도로 일만 하고 살았죠. 하지만 제가 기자의 삶을 ‘택한’ 것은 취재가 곧 제 인생의 의미를 찾는 과정이기도 했기 때문입니다. 수십 년간 절망적인 상황을 봐 왔지만, 그 속에서 많은 희망도 보았습니다.”

 

소셜미디어의 가짜 뉴스에 대해 페이스북과 유튜브 등 글로벌 IT 기업들이 더욱 책임을 져야 한다고 주장하는 그는 필리핀의 일이 모두의 현실이 될 수 있다고 경고한다. 

 

정치적 지도자의 외압만이 아니라, 거짓 정보와 선정적인 소식만을 담은 ‘나쁜 기사’가 이익을 보는 뉴스 소비 행태가 언론 환경을 왜곡한다는 것. “포털에서 주로 뉴스를 소비하는 한국 역시 좋은 기사가 보상을 받기 어려운 구조로 알고 있습니다. 조회수를 통해 수익이 창출되는 환경에서는, 언제든 선동적인 뉴스가 우세해질 수 있죠.” 래플러를 이끌 차기 지도자를 물색하고 있는 베테랑 저널리스트는, 여전히 초년병다운 활기를 보이며 ‘표현의 자유’를 강조했다. 

 

“기자들이 질문하지 못하는 순간 민주주의도 없어지죠. 수십 년간의 기자 생활을 하면서 느낀 것은, 저널리즘의 질이 그 나라의 민주주의의 질을 결정한다는 것입니다.”

 

 

 

 

 

2. ‘두테르테·저커버그 저격수’가 올해 노벨상 받은 이유 [김정화의 WWW]

 

 

< 서울신문 2021-10-23 >

 

 

<22> 필리핀 언론인 마리아 레사

 

지난 11일(현지시간) 경제학상을 끝으로 제121회 노벨상 수상자 발표도 끝났다. 과학·문학·경제학 등 각 분야에서 뛰어난 업적을 남긴 이들을 기리는 노벨상은 최근 들어 계속 성별과 인종의 다양성이 떨어진다는 지적을 받아왔다. 분야의 특성상 수상자가 북미, 유럽국가 백인 남성 위주로 선정된다는 것이다.

이런 측면에서 올해 노벨평화상을 받은 마리아 레사(58)는 여러 면에서 ‘독특한’ 수상자다. 올해 수상자 중 유일한 여성이고, 자국 필리핀에서 최초로 노벨상을 받은 인물이며, 언론인으로서는 80여년 만이라서다.

 

독재정권 맞서고 테러집단 취재…빈라덴도 참고했다
 

1963년 필리핀 마닐라에서 태어난 레사는 부모를 따라 1970년대 미국으로 건너가 자란 이중국적자다. 그가 모국에 다시 돌아온 건 1986년, 필리핀 민중이 독재자 페르디난드 마르코스 대통령을 몰아내기 위해 거리로 뛰쳐나온 시기와 맞물린다. 마르코스는 1965년부터 21년간 장기 집권했는데, 1986년 부정선거로 대통령에 재당선됐지만 그해 ‘피플 파워 혁명’으로 축출됐다.

레사는 필리핀에 돌아온 이후 언론인으로서 ‘테러와의 싸움’에 천착했다. 그때까지만 해도 아시아 지역의 테러 단체는 비교적 많이 알려지지 않았을 때였다. 레사는 1990년대 CNN의 마닐라 지국장을 맡은 데 이어 자카르타 지국장을 역임했는데, 1998년 인도네시아 폭동, 1999년 동티모르 사태, 2002년 자카르타 주재 필리핀 대사 관저 폭발 등 주요 사건을 다뤘다.
 

특히 아시아 지역 탐사 전문 기자로 테러 관련 뉴스를 다루면서 동남아시아의 신흥 테러 집단을 쫓았다. 필리핀 남부 최대 이슬람 반군 조직인 ‘모로 이슬람 해방 전선’(MILF)을 오사마 빈 라덴의 알 카에다와 연결시킨 최초의 인물이기도 하다. 레사의 취재는 광범위한 영향력을 자랑했는데, 그가 취재한 비디오테이프가 후에 아프가니스탄에 있는 빈 라덴의 은신처에서 발견되기도 했다.

 

테러집단과 싸우던 레사의 전투는 2012년 온라인 탐사보도 전문매체 ‘래플러’(Rappler)를 공동 설립하며 새로운 길을 걷게 된다. 래플러는 2016년 로드리고 두테르테 필리핀 대통령의 당선 이후 그를 집중 비판하면서 저항 언론의 상징이 됐다. 두테르테는 정권을 잡은 직후 ‘마약과의 전쟁’을 선포했는데, 대대적인 마약 범죄 소탕 과정에서 수천명이 사망했다.

 

두테르테 정권 비판 후 박해 “살해·강간 위협은 일상”

 

래플러는 용의자 등이 재판 없이 사살되는 초법적 처형 등에 문제제기 하며 정부와 대립각을 세웠고, 이 때문에 레사는 두테르테의 눈엣가시로 여겨져 노골적인 박해를 받았다. 두테르테는 2018년 래플러 기자들의 공식 취재 활동을 금지하고 사이트 운영 허가까지 취소했다.

레사는 래플러의 설립자이자 최고경영자(CEO)로서 두테르테의 끊임없는 탄압을 견뎌야 했다. 사기와 탈세, 뇌물 혐의로 기소됐고 2019년 2월에는 사이버 명예훼손 혐의로 체포됐다. 그가 체포됐다가 보석으로 풀려난 것만 10번에 달한다.
 

지난해에는 결국 사이버 명예훼손 혐의가 인정돼 법원에서 최대 6년 이하의 징역형을 선고받은 뒤 보석이 허가돼 불구속 상태에서 항소 방침을 밝혔다. 레사는 당시 “이번 판결은 언론의 자유와 민주주의에 대한 타격”이라고 비판하며 표현의 자유를 위해 계속 싸우겠다고 밝혔다.

 

이처럼 권위주의 정권에 맞선 레사는 2018년 미 시사주간지 타임이 선정한 올해의 인물로 뽑혔으며, 제70회 세계신문협회가 시상한 황금펜상 수상자로 선정되기도 했다.

 

“페북은 민주주의 저해…적극 조치 나서야”

 

노벨평화상 수상 소식에 필리핀 자택서 미소짓는 마리아 레사 필리핀의 온라인 탐사보도 매체 ‘래플러’(Rappler)의 공동설립자이자 최고경영자(CEO)인 마리아 레사가 8일(현지시간) 2021년 노벨 평화상 수상자로 선정된 직후 메트로 마닐라 타기그시 자택에서 미소짓고 있다.  

 

레사는 자국 내 독재 권력에 저항 할뿐 아니라 페이스북 같은 빅테크 기업의 윤리적 역할에 대해서도 목소리를 높이며 세계적으로 주목받았다. 이는 래플러가 초창기 페이스북 페이지를 기반으로 만들어졌기 때문이다. 레사는 미 대선을 앞둔 2016년 페이스북 임원을 만나 소셜미디어 기업이 플랫폼에 퍼지는 가짜뉴스와 혐오표현, 범죄에 대해 적극적으로 조치를 취해야 한다고 줄곧 강조했다.

 

그는 “소셜미디어는 무기가 된다. 미국 이전에 필리핀이 그 길을 걸었다”며 “온라인 폭력은 실제 세계의 폭력으로 이어진다”고 말한 바 있다. 노벨상 수상 이후에는 로이터통신과 인터뷰에서 “페이스북이 혐오표현과 허위정보 차단에 실패했고, 팩트에 반하는 편향성을 지니고 있다”며 ‘민주주의에 대한 위협’이라고 지적하기도 했다.

 

이는 레사 자신이 온라인에서 각종 협박과 폭력 위협에 시달려왔기 때문이다. 그는 2016년 이후 두테르테의 지지자들로부터 끊임없이 공격받았다. 국제언론인센터(ICFJ)가 최근 발간한 빅데이터 사례 연구 보고서에 따르면 2016~2021년 레사에 대한 소셜미디어 공격이 급증했는데, 이는 결국 실제 위협으로 번졌다.

특히 여성에 대한 공격은 더 심했다. 사이버 공간에서 레사는 강간이나 살해 협박은 물론 ‘가짜뉴스의 여왕, 거짓말쟁이, 개 같은 X’ 등 각종 독설과 인종·성차별적 공격을 받았다.

 

미 싱크탱크인 우드로윌슨센터 소속 가짜뉴스 연구자인 니나 잰코위치는 워싱턴포스트(WP)에 기고한 칼럼에서 “레사의 수상은 페이스북의 실패에 대한 고발 성격이 짙다”고 평하기도 했다. 잰코위치는 “래플러 창립 초기 레사가 마크 저커버그 페이스북 CEO에게 ‘필리핀 국민의 97%가 페이스북을 사용한다’며 엄청난 영향력에 대해 설명하자, 저커버그는 나머지 3%에 대한 관심과 시장 점유율에만 관심을 보였다”는 일화를 덧붙였다. 실제 최근 페이스북은 가짜뉴스 등을 제대로 거르지 않고 있다는 직원의 내부 고발 이후 큰 곤욕을 치르고 있다.

 

올해 노벨상 여성은 딱 1명…“언론 역할 일깨웠다”
 

온라인 플랫폼이 이 같은 현상을 방치하면서 사이버 공격은 더욱 힘을 얻었고, 두테르테는 이같은 지지를 등에 업고 더 적극적으로 레사를 탄압했다. 뉴욕타임스(NYT)는 두테르테와 도널드 트럼프 전 미국 대통령을 비교하면서 “트럼프가 미국 기자들을 ‘민중의 적’이라고 불렀다면, 두테르테는 한걸음 더 나아갔다”며 “그는 기자들을 ‘암살당해도 싼 개자식들’이라고 표현했다”고 짚었다.

노벨위원회가 이번에 레사에 대해 “표현의 자유를 위한 용감한 싸움을 벌였다”며 “민주주의와 언론의 자유가 점점 더 불리한 조건에 직면하고 있는 세상에서 이러한 이상을 옹호하는 모든 언론인을 대표한다”고 언급한 것도 이런 맥락이다.

노벨위원회가 저널리즘의 중요성을 강조하며 언론인들에만 평화상을 수여한 건 1935년 이후 처음이다. 당시 독일 언론인 카를 폰 오시에츠키는 독일이 1차 세계대전 뒤 비밀리에 재무장하고 있다는 사실을 폭로한 공로로 평화상을 받았다.
 

레사는 전통 매체와 뉴미디어, 컴퓨터 기술을 접목해 저널리즘을 재정립한 인물로 평가받는다. 기존 신문·방송에 머무르지 않고 디지털 미디어에서도 표현의 자유를 지키려는 시도를 계속하고 있어서다. 과거 인터뷰에서 그는 “부정부패와 가짜 뉴스, 언론의 자유를 침묵시키려는 시도에 맞서 싸우기 위해 모든 시간을 바친다”며 “이 세대의 싸움은 진리를 위한 전투가 될 것”이라고 밝혔다.

 

이번 수상 이후에도 레사는 민주주의와 표현의 자유의 중요성을 거론하며 “사실(facts)이 없는 세계는 진실과 신뢰가 없는 세계를 의미한다”고 강조했다. 그는 “래플러는 매일 폐간 가능성을 안고 살아가지만, 북극성을 앞에 두고 사실을 수호하면 권력에 책임을 지게 할 수 있다”고 하는가 하면 소셜미디어의 책임에 대해서도 거듭 경고했다. 레사는 소셜미디어가 “정보 생태계에서 폭발하는 원자폭탄과 같다”며 “2차 세계대전 뒤에 그랬듯 세계가 이 문제를 풀기 위해 단결해야 한다”고 말했다.

 

◆마리아 레사는 누구·Maria Angelita Ressa

 

1963 필리핀 마닐라 출생
1986 프린스턴대 졸업
1986 필리핀 귀국
1987 다큐멘터리 탐사 프로그램 전문 프로브 프로덕션 설립
1987~1995 마닐라 CNN 지국장
1995~2005 자카르타 CNN 지국장
2003 책 ‘테러의 씨앗’(Seeds of Terror) 출판
2005 필리핀 최대 미디어 기업 ABS-SBN 뉴스 운영
2012 탐사보도 전문 매체 ‘래플러’(Rappler) 설립
2013 책 ‘빈라덴에서 페이스북까지’(From Bin Laden to Facebook) 출판
2018 타임 ‘올해의 인물’ 선정
2021 필리핀인 최초 노벨평화상 수상

 

 

 

3.  2021 노벨평화상 수상 연설 전문

 

https://youtu.be/NsWVb2AUl5Y

 

 

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Your 

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests

I stand before you, a representative of every journalist around the world who is forced to sacrifice so much to hold the line, to stay true to our values and mission: to bring you the truth and hold power to account. 

I remember the brutal dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta, Luz Mely Reyes in Venezuela, Roman Protasevich in Belarus (whose plane was literally hijacked so he could be arrested), Jimmy Lai languishing in a Hong Kong prison, Sonny Swe, who after getting out of 

more than 7 years in jail started another news group … now forced to flee Myanmar. And in my own country, 23 year old Frenchie Mae Cumpio, still in prison after nearly 2 years, and just 36 hours ago the news that 

my former colleague, Jess Malabanan, was shot dead.

There are so many to thank for helping keep us safer and working. The #HoldTheLine Coalition of more than 80 global groups defending press freedom, and the human rights groups that help us shine the light. There are costs for you as well: in the Philippines, more lawyers have been killed –at least 63 compared to the 22 journalists murdered after President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016. Since then, Karapatan, a member of our #CourageON human rights coalition, has had 16 people killed, and Sen. Leila de Lima – because she demanded accountability, is serving her 5th year in jail. Or ABS-CBN, our largest broadcaster, a news room I once led, which, last year, lost its franchise to operate.

I helped create a startup, Rappler, turning 10 years old in January - our attempt to put together two sides of a coin that shows everything wrong with our world today: an absence of law and democratic vision for the 21st century. That coin represents our information ecosystem, which determines everything else about our world. Journalists, the old gatekeepers, are one side of the coin. The other is technology, with its god-like power that has allowed a virus of lies to infect each of us, pitting us against each other, bringing out our fears, anger and hate, and setting the stage for the rise of authoritarians and dictators around the world.

Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that’s coursing through our information ecosystem, prioritized by American internet companies that make more money by spreading that hate and triggering the worst in us… well, that just means we have to work much harder. (hold up t-shirt) In order to be the good, we have to BElieve THEre is GOOD in the world.

I have been a journalist for more than 35 years: I’ve worked in conflict zones and warzones in Asia, reported on hundreds of disasters - and while I have seen so much bad, I have also documented so much good, when people who have nothing offer you what they have. Part of how we at Rappler survived the last 5 years of government attacks is because of the kindness of strangers, and the reason they help – despite the danger – is because they want to, with little expectation of anything in return. This is the best of who we are, the part of our humanity that makes miracles happen. This is what we lose when we live in a world of fear and violence.

The last time a working journalist was given this award was in 1936, and Carl von Ossietzky never made it 

to Oslo because he languished in a Nazi concentration camp. So we’re hopefully a step ahead because 

we’re actually here!

By giving this to journalists today, the Nobel committee is signalling a similar historical moment, another 

existential point for democracy. Dmitry and I are lucky because we can speak to you now, but there are so 

many more journalists persecuted in the shadows with neither exposure nor support, and governments are 

doubling down with impunity. The accelerant is technology, at a time when creative destruction takes new 

meaning.

We are standing on the rubble of the world that was, and we must have the foresight and courage to 

imagine what might happen if we don’t act now, and instead, create the world as it should be –more compassionate, more equal, more sustainable.

To do that, please ask yourself the same question my team and I had to confront 5 years ago: what are you willing to sacrifice for the Truth?

I’ll tell you how I lived my way into the answer in three points: first, my context and how these attacks shaped me; second, by the problem we all face; and finally, finding the solution –because we must!

In less than 2 years, the Philippine government filed 10 arrest warrants against me. I’ve had to post bail 10  times just to do my job. Last year, I and a former colleague were convicted of cyber libel for a story we published 8 years earlier at a time the law we allegedly violated didn’t even exist. All told, the charges I face could send me to jail for about 100 years.

But, the more I was attacked for my journalism, the more resolute I became. I had first-hand evidence of abuse of power. What was meant to intimidate me and Rappler only strengthened us.

At the core of journalism is a code of honor. And mine is layered on different worlds –from how I grew up, when I learned what was right and wrong; from college, and the honor code I learned there; and my time as a reporter, and the code of standards & ethics I learned and helped write. Add to that the Filipino idea of utang na loob – or the debt from within – at its best, a system of paying it forward.

Truth and ethical honor intersected like an arrow into this moment where hate, lies, and divisiveness thrive. As only the 18th woman to receive this prize, I need to tell you how gendered disinformation is a new threat and is taking a significant toll on the mental health and physical safety of women, girls, trans, and LGBTQ+  people all over the world. Women journalists are at the epicenter of risk. This pandemic of misogyny and hatred needs to be tackled, now. Even there, we can find strength. After all, you don’t really know who you really are until you’re forced to fight for it.

Now let me pull out so we’re clear about the problem we all face and how we got here.

The attacks against us in Rappler began 5 years ago when we demanded an end to impunity on two fronts: Duterte’s drug war and Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. Today, it has only gotten worse –and Silicon Valley’s sins came home to roost in the United States on January 6 with mob violence on Capitol Hill.

What happens on social media doesn’t stay on social media.

Online violence is real world violence.

Social media is a deadly game for power and money, what Shoshana Zuboff calls surveillance capitalism,  extracting our private lives for outsized corporate gain. Our personal experiences are sucked into a database, organized by AI, then sold to the highest bidder. Highly profitable micro-targeting operations are engineered to structurally undermine human will – a behavior modification system in which we are Pavlov’s dogs, experimented on in real time with disastrous consequences in countries like mine, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka and so many more. These destructive corporations have siphoned money away from news groups and now pose a foundational threat to markets and elections.

Facebook is the world’s largest distributor of news, and yet studies have shown that lies laced with anger and hate spread faster and further than facts on social media.

These American companies controlling our global information ecosystem are biased against facts, biased  against journalists. They are – by design – dividing us and radicalizing us.

Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without trust, we have no shared  reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with our world’s existential problems: climate, coronavirus, the battle for truth.

When I was first arrested in 2019, the officer said, “Ma’am, trabaho lang po,” (Ma’am, I’m only doing my job). Then he lowered his voice to almost a whisper as he read my Miranda rights. He was clearly uncomfortable, and I almost felt sorry for him. Except he was arresting me because I’m a journalist!

This officer was a tool of power – and an example of how a good man can turn evil –  and how great atrocities happen. Hannah Arendt wrote about the banality of evil when describing men who carried out the orders of Hitler, how career-oriented bureaucrats can act without conscience because they justify that they’re only following orders.

This is how a nation – and a world – loses its soul.

You have to know what values you are fighting for, and you have to draw the lines early –  but if you haven’t done so, do it now: where this side you’re good, and this side, you’re evil. Some governments may be lost causes, and if you’re working in tech, I’m talking to you.

How can you have election integrity if you don’t have integrity of facts?

That’s the problem facing countries with elections next year: among them, Brazil, Hungary, France, the United States, and my Philippines –  where we are at a do or die moment with presidential elections on May 9. 35 years after the People Power revolt ousted Ferdinand Marcos and forced his family into exile, his son, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is the front runner – and he has built an extensive disinformation network on social media, which Rappler exposed in 2019. That is changing history in front of our eyes.

To show how disinformation is both a local and global problem, take the Chinese information operations  taken down by Facebook in Sept 2020: it was creating fake accounts using AI generated photos for the US elections, polishing the image of the Marcoses, campaigning for Duterte’s daughter, and attacking me and Rappler.

So what are we going to do?

An invisible atom bomb exploded in our information ecosystem, and the world must act as it did after  Hiroshima. Like that time, we need to create new institutions, like the United Nations, and new codes stating our values, like the universal declaration of human rights, to prevent humanity from doing its worse. It’s an arms race in the information ecosystem. To stop that requires a multilateral approach that all of us must be part of. It begins by restoring facts.

We need information ecosystems that live and die by facts. We do this by shifting social priorities to rebuild  journalism for the 21st century while regulating and outlawing the surveillance economics that profit from hate and lies.

We need to help independent journalism survive, first by giving greater protection to journalists and standing up against States which target journalists. Then we need to address the collapse of the advertising model  for journalism. This is part of the reason that I agreed to co-chair the International Fund for Public Interest Media, which is trying to raise new money from overseas development assistance funds. Right now, while journalism is under attack on all fronts, only 0.3% of ODA is spent on journalism. If we nudge that to 1%, we can raise $1bn a year for news organizations. That will be crucial for the global south.

Journalists must embrace technology. That’s why, with the help of the Google News Initiative, Rappler rolled out a new platform two weeks ago designed to build communities of action. Technology in the hands of  journalists won’t be viral, but like your vegetables, they’ll be better for us because the north star is not profit alone, but facts, truth, and trust.

Now for legislation. Thanks to the EU for taking leadership with its Democracy Action Plan. For the US,  reform or revoke section 230, the law that treats social media platforms like utilities. It’s not a comprehensive solution, but it gets the ball rolling. Because these platforms put their thumbs on the scale of distribution. So while the public debate is focused downstream on content moderation, the real sleight of hand, happens further upstream, where algorithms of distribution have been programmed by humans with their coded bias. Their editorial agenda is profit driven, carried out by machines at scale. The impact is global, with cheap armies on social media tearing down democracy in at least 81 countries around the world. That impunity must stop.

Democracy has become a woman-to-woman, man-to- man defense of our values. We’re at a sliding door moment, where we can continue down the path we’re on and descend further into fascism, or we can each choose to fight for a better world.

To do that, you have to ask yourself: what are YOU willing to sacrifice for the truth?

I didn’t know if I was going to be here today. Every day, I live with the real threat of spending the rest of my  life in jail just because I’m a journalist. When I go home, I have no idea what the future holds, but it’s worth the risk.

The destruction has happened. Now it’s time to build – to create the world we want.

Now, please, with me, close your eyes. And imagine the world as it should be. A world of peace, trust and  empathy, bringing out the best that we can be.

Now let’s go and make it happen. Let’s hold the line. Together.