Nobel Peace laureate slams Facebook: to threaten democracy
Nobel Peace Prize winning Filipino journalist Maria Ressa has slammed Facebook for social media, calling it a threat to democracy.
Facebook is failing to prevent hate speech and misinformation, Ressa said, stressing that it “biases the facts.”
Facebook’s algorithms “prioritize the dissemination of lies mingled with anger and hatred rather than the facts,” the journalist and director of the Philippine News Web site Rappler said after the award was announced.
She pointed out that Facebook has become one of the largest news distributors in the world, “but it is biased against the facts and against the press.”
Her comments add to the pressure on Facebook, which is used by more than three billion people, recently after a former employee of the company turned abusive and accused the company of putting profits ahead of efforts to combat hate speech and the spread of false information.
Facebook denies any wrongdoing.
A Facebook representative in the Philippines did not respond to requests for comment on Raisa’s remarks.
Ressa has been the target of intense hate campaigns on social media by supporters of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who she says are aiming to damage her news website’s reputation.
