Nobel Prize Winner as Meta Ends US Fact-Checking Program

Filipino Nobel laureate Maria Ressa warned on Wednesday of “extremely dangerous times ahead” in an interview with AFP after social media giant Meta ended its US fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram.

Ressa and the Rappler news site she co-founded have spent years fighting online misinformation while fighting court cases filed during former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration after critical reports about his deadly war on drugs.

The veteran journalist and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner said Meta’s decision meant “extremely dangerous times ahead” for journalism, democracy and social media users.

“Mark Zuckerberg says it’s a question of freedom of expression; that’s completely wrong,” Ressa told AFP at the Rappler newsroom in Manila.

“Only if you are motivated by profit can you claim that; only if you want power and money can you claim that. It’s about security.”

Analysts saw Meta’s announcement on Tuesday as an attempt by Zuckerberg to appease US President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his inauguration this month.

Trump has been a harsh critic of Meta and Zuckerberg for years, accusing the company of bias against him and threatening to retaliate against the tech billionaire once he returns to office.

Fact-checking and investigating disinformation have long been a hot topic in a hyperpolarized political climate in the United States, and American conservative advocates say they are a tool to restrict free speech and censor right-wing content.

Ressa, who is also a US citizen, rejected Zuckerberg’s claim that fact-checkers had become “too politically biased” and “destroyed more trust than they had created.”

“Journalists have a series of rules and ethics,” Ressa told AFP.

“What Facebook is going to do is get rid of that and then allow the lies, anger, fear and hate to infect every person on the platform.”

Meta’s actions would lead to a “world without facts” and “that is a world fit for a dictator,” Ressa warned.

“Mark Zuckerberg has supreme power,” he said, “and he wrongly chooses to prioritize profits, Facebook’s annual profits, over the safety of people on the platforms.”

‘Just the beginning’

Rappler is one of the partners working with Facebook’s fact-checking program.

The AFP is also currently collaborating in 26 languages ​​with Facebook’s fact-checking program, in which Facebook pays to use fact-checks from around 80 organizations around the world on its platform, WhatsApp and Instagram.

In a statement shared with AFP, Rappler said he intends to continue working with Facebook “to protect his fellow Filipinos from manipulation and the dangers of misinformation.”

“What has happened in the United States is just the beginning,” Rappler said.

“It is an ominous sign of more dangerous times in the fight to preserve and protect our individual agency and our shared reality.”

Ressa has long maintained that the charges against her and Rappler were politically motivated after their critical reporting on the Duterte government’s policies, including its anti-drug crackdown that killed thousands of people.

Trump, who promised in his first post-election news conference to “straighten out” the “corrupt” American press, appeared to have followed Duterte’s lead, Ressa said.

The incoming president of the United States has launched unprecedented lawsuits against newspapers and pollsters that observers say are signs of an escalation of intimidation and censorship tactics.

Ressa promised to do everything possible to “ensure the integrity of the information.”

“The Nobel Prize said you can’t have democracy if you don’t have journalism,” Ressa said.

“This is a crucial year for the survival of journalism. We will do everything we can to make sure that happens.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated channel.)