TO HAVE an integrity of elections, the country should defeat disinformation as soon as possible, Rappler CEO and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa said at the Senate committee investigation on the disinformation machinery online.
“If we don’t have an integrity of facts, we will not have
integrity of elections. If you look at every study of fascism globally, they
first tear down the facts,” said Ressa at the third hearing of the Senate
Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes.
“Facebook is now the world’s largest distributor of news and yet
studies have shown that lies laced with anger and hate spread faster and
further than the really boring facts. So the reality is, the platforms that
deliver the facts to you are biased against facts, they are biased against
journalists. And they are, by design, dividing us and radicalizing us,” she
added.
Senator Francis Pangilinan, who heads the Senate committee
conducting the hearing, said the unprecedented scale, speed, and scope of
technology used in disinformation distorts the truth that allows people to make
informed decisions.
“Ganito kasama ang kasinungalingan. Apektado ang kalusugan at
kaligtasan nating lahat, ang kaban ng bayan, at ang kaayusan ng ating lipunan.
Masama na nga ang sitwasyon, sinasamantala pa ang pagka-desperado ng ating mga
kababayan sa mga pakalat ng mga paninira,” he said after citing the
disinformation on the volunteer-driven program on online consultation and the
Typhoon Odette relief operations in Siargao.
“Ano ang pinapatay ng infodemic na ito? Ang katotohanan. At pag
patay na ang katotohanan, paano pa nating malalaman kung ano totoo sa hindi
totoo. Sa kasinungalingan sa katotohanan? Paano tayo magpapasya nang maayos
kung kasinungalingan ang basehan ng ating pagpapasya?” Pangilinan asked during
his opening statement.
According to Ressa, one of the faster ways to defeat
disinformation is to create a law that would penalize technology and social
media companies that continue to allow disinformation and misinformation to
proliferate in their platforms.
“In our country, what can we do? The quick solution would be to
actually hold the platforms accountable for what they spread, what they allow
to spread. And when you do that, I bet you that you would automatically see a
shrinking of information operations,” Ressa said.
For Ressa, the infodemic online has catapulted the narratives of
populist regimes, including President Rodrigo Duterte’s “us vs them” narrative,
which has now further divided the Filipinos.
As to the fears that the legislation might trample on freedom of
speech, Ressa argued that it is the algorithm of the distribution channels that
are seeking to be controlled and not the content. “So where are you going to
intervene? Don’t intervene in the content because you can actually be accused
of censorship. But if you go to the algorithms of amplification…because
everyone can say what they think. But what your neighbor said never reaches
broadcast scale until today, because there have been no guardrails on the
distribution of lies,” she explained.
“Infodemic threatens the very fiber of our decency as a people.
The situation has gone so very bad that even the traditionally quiet community
of 18 business groups issued a statement against disinformation and hate
speech,” Pangilinan said, adding, he will support any move that will hold
accountable the individuals behind the proliferation of fake news and the
channels that amplify the same.
“We must have laws that are up-to-date, responsive to the needs of
the times, fool proof as best at it can be against the ingenious minds of
criminals ika' nga... We have to craft new laws or legislation cognizant of the
new complications that technology poses,” Pangilinan said. “Sama-sama po nating
iilawan ang madilim na mundo ng infodemic. As we grapple for sharper weapons to
defeat the night, we shall remember that our torches are puny when alone. Light
shines brightest when all the torches stand together in firm defiance of evil.”
In 2016 the National Public Radio quoted Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg in a report as saying his company has studied fake news and found it
is a “very small volume” of the content on Facebook. Zuckerberg also said his
team has studied the filter bubble effect and the research shows that almost
everyone has some friend on the other side of the aisle. The social network's
ability to connect people makes it “inherently more diverse” than the major
news stations of 20 years back.
He said right now the problem is not that diverse information is
not there. It is there more than it was in the days of traditional media. The
problem, he said, is that people do not click on things that do not conform to
their worldview. And, he said “I don't know what to do about that.”
He said Facebook is not a free speech platform. It has a long list
of rules, called Community Standards, of things you're not allowed to say or
share.
“When we started, the North Star for us was: We’re building a safe
community,” Zuckerberg said. He thought about how to control for bullies. One
of the things that have shifted, he said, is that now news is a more important
part of Facebook content. “We’re still working through what that means,” he
said. (Mindanao Examiner contributed to this report.)
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