Internet platforms have destroyed shared reality and are destroying democracy, warns Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
Co-founder of the website Rappler, she is the subject of several lawsuits and was even arrested in 2019 by the government of Rodrigo Duterte after a report.
"The facts are boring, they don't spread rapidly. That's why the incentive structure of social media platforms is completely wrong," she told Folha.
Maria Ressa argues that, in this context, each person lives in their personalized news feed, and what gains greater reach are lies and hate speech, not the truth.
The journalist also warns that it is not possible to have integrity of elections if there is no integrity of facts, referring to the "information war" of leaders such as Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.
The Nobel laureate indicated that she was very concerned about Bolsonaro's version of Trump's move to discredit the electoral process.
According to her, in order to react to this, the entire Brazilian society will have to engage, with fact checking, strategic litigation and action by non-governmental organizations.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon