How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future

Ressa describes the early years of Rappler, a news website she started in the Philippines in 2011. Ressa and her three female co-founders, collectively referred to as manangs (a term loosely translated as “older sisters”), each brought unique skills and experiences from their previous work in journalism and media management. They shared a commitment to good journalism, truth, and justice, and aimed to create a sustainable business model for independent news in the digital age.

Rappler’s approach was innovative, embracing social media, crowd-sourcing, and data analytics to engage audiences and drive social change. The company experimented with Facebook and live streaming early on, training student journalists to use social media for environmental activism. Ressa was optimistic about the potential of the internet and social media to promote democracy and hold power accountable, inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.

In its first few years, Rappler experienced rapid growth and success, becoming the third most popular news site in the Philippines. It pioneered innovative storytelling techniques and audience engagement strategies, such as the use of video, social network analysis, and a mood meter that allowed readers to express their emotional reactions to stories. Ressa believed that by tracking audience emotions and engagement, Rappler could gain valuable insights into the issues that mattered most to Filipinos and use this data to fight corruption, build civic institutions, and solve pressing governance problems. The mood meter proved to be a powerful tool for understanding public sentiment and anticipating emerging trends and behaviors in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Rappler launched several successful civic engagement campaigns between 2012 and 2016, including initiatives to promote budget transparency, disaster risk reduction, hunger alleviation, and women’s rights. These involved partnerships with government agencies, NGOs, and private sector sponsors.

However, Rappler’s heyday coincided with the rise of Rodrigo Duterte, a controversial mayor who was elected president in 2016 after running a populist campaign that promised to crack down on crime and corruption by any means necessary, including extrajudicial killings. Ressa had interviewed Duterte in the 1980s and was alarmed by his rhetoric and his skilled use of Facebook to win support.

The chapter ends on an ominous note, with Duterte’s inauguration and the first killings of his war on drugs, which would go on to claim thousands of lives and place Ressa and Rappler in direct confrontation with an increasingly authoritarian government. Despite the optimism of Rappler’s early years, Ressa acknowledges that the same digital tools she once saw as a force for democracy were now being turned against journalists and citizens by corrupt politicians and vested interests.

The chapter begins with Ressa’s visit to Facebook’s Singapore office in August 2016, where she warned company representatives, including Ken Teh, Claire Wareing, and Elizabeth Hernandez, about alarming trends in online manipulation and disinformation that Rappler had been tracking. Ressa was struck by the lavish display of wealth at Facebook’s office, a stark contrast to the limited resources of her own startup. Despite the friendly relationship between Rappler and Facebook, with the latter even showcasing Rappler at its annual F8 conference, Ressa’s warnings seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Ressa writes that the Philippines had a long history as a global hub for cheap labor, internet scams, and online manipulation. A former American colony, the country’s English-speaking, college-educated workforce and lack of internet regulations made it an attractive location for foreign businesses operating in gray areas. The Philippines became known for “onlining” services that spammed email addresses worldwide and was even linked to the “hate factory” site 8chan (later 8kun). Ressa notes that when global crackdowns on spam occurred between 2010 and 2012, those involved in the homegrown industry turned to social media as a new business opportunity.

The author posits three stages of degradation in the online information ecosystem: early experimentation, commercialization of black ops, and consolidation of power. She shares the story of Sam, a young digital influencer who shifted from creating fan pages to working for Duterte’s campaign, using tactics like astroturfing and creating networks of fake accounts to manipulate public opinion. Sam’s journey illustrates how the influence economy evolved into networked disinformation, with advertising and PR strategists outsourcing operations to a spectrum of content creators and fake account operators. Ressa emphasizes that this phenomenon was enabled by the design of social media platforms, which encouraged such behavior and had a corrupting influence on the values of the younger generation.

Ressa grew increasingly concerned about Facebook’s lack of action and the company’s inability to grasp the severity of the situation, even when presented with data and evidence. She shared her findings with Facebook representatives in Singapore, detailing how Rappler had charted the degradation of the online information ecosystem and political life in the Philippines. Ressa explains the concept of asymmetrical online warfare, in which powerful entities use the surreptitious tactics of rebel groups to manipulate public opinion. She also highlights how Facebook’s fragmented nature and notorious “Move fast, break things” mindset contributed to their inability to address these issues effectively (122).

The author recounts a specific incident involving a six-month-old Rappler article that was used in a clumsily executed disinformation operation to justify Duterte’s declaration of a state of lawlessness following a bombing in Davao City. The article, titled “Man with Bomb Now at Davao Checkpoint,” originally published in March 2016, suddenly gained traction and became Rappler’s top story in real-time Google Analytics. Ressa and her team discovered that anonymous and fake accounts, pro-Duterte pages, and dubious websites worked together to make it appear as if the old story was breaking news, misleading the public and supporting Duterte’s actions. This incident marked the beginning of open online warfare against Rappler and independent media, aimed at eroding public trust.

Ressa critiques Facebook’s business model, which prioritizes growth and revenue over user safety and democracy. She argues that the platform’s design choices, such as the friends-of-friends algorithm and the emphasis on emotive, radical content, have contributed to the spread of anger, hatred, and extremism worldwide. Ressa points out that Facebook’s algorithms serve content that radicalizes users, moving them further to the extremes of the political spectrum and widening societal divides. She compares the platform’s impact to sociological experiments that change individual and societal behavior on a large scale, drawing parallels to the spread of radical ideologies like terrorism.

The author also highlights the role of key Facebook executives such as Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg in shaping the company’s policies and decisions. She criticizes Zuckerberg’s interpretation of free speech and his failure to take gatekeeping responsibilities seriously. Ressa argues that Zuckerberg’s decisions, such as allowing engineers unlimited access to user data and prioritizing the friends-of-friends algorithm, reflect the thinking of a young man rather than a responsible corporate executive. She also points out how Sheryl Sandberg’s introduction of the surveillance capitalism model, which treats human data as commodities, has contributed to the platform’s harmful impact on society.

In response to the growing threats to democracy and public discourse, Rappler launched the #NoPlaceforHate campaign to introduce more aggressive comment moderation standards and protect its users from hate speech and disinformation. With the support of her board, Ressa and her team published a three-part series on “the weaponization of the internet” (143), which marked a turning point in her fight against disinformation and online manipulation. Despite the retaliation they later faced, Ressa feels no regrets about her actions, and she emphasizes the importance of confronting these issues to safeguard democracy and human rights.

In this chapter, Ressa describes how the rule of law crumbled in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, which weaponized social media, particularly Facebook, to spread disinformation and attack critics.

In October 2016, Ressa and her team at Rappler published a series of articles on the weaponization of the internet. The series exposed the use of fake accounts and paid propaganda on social media to sow confusion and doubt. In response, Duterte’s online supporters, led by key figures like Mocha Uson and RJ Nieto, launched coordinated attacks against Rappler and Ressa, aiming to discredit their work and reputation.

Meanwhile, the checks and balances of the three branches of government collapsed through patronage and loyalty to Duterte. The administration targeted high-profile individuals in business, politics, and media to make examples of those who challenged his power. Prominent examples included the tycoon Roberto Ongpin, who faced public attacks and charges, and Senator Leila de Lima, who was arrested on drug charges after investigating Duterte’s alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings.

Ressa highlights the role of Facebook’s algorithms in amplifying the reach of Duterte’s “propaganda machine” (152), enabling the spread of lies and attacks against journalists and critics. Despite Rappler’s efforts to expose the disinformation campaigns and provide data to Facebook, the social media platform largely ignored their warnings, prioritizing engagement over the integrity of the information ecosystem.

Ressa was personally targeted by online attacks, which aimed to destroy her credibility and crush her will to continue her work. She initially hesitated to publicly address the attacks, fearing it would only amplify them. However, through conversations with colleagues like Julie Posetti, she realized the importance of speaking out and participated in a UNESCO study on the risks faced by journalists, particularly women.

The chapter also mentions Ressa’s meeting with Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook’s F8 conference in 2017, where she warned him about the platform’s power in the Philippines and its role in the attacks against journalists. However, Zuckerberg seemed more focused on issues within the United States.

As Duterte’s attacks on the media intensified, Rappler faced multiple investigations alleging criminal acts related to foreign ownership, tax evasion, and cyber libel. The legal battles drained Rappler’s resources, with a third of their operating expenses going towards legal fees.

Ressa emphasizes the importance of not remaining silent in the face of these attacks, stating that “silence is complicity” (173). The chapter ends with the Philippines, Rappler, and Ressa herself receiving a surge of international attention with the publication of a Bloomberg Businessweek cover story in December 2017, initially titled “How Rodrigo Duterte Turned Facebook into a Weapon—with a Little Help from Facebook,” though this title was later changed.