How to Stand Up to a Dictator

2022

In How to Stand Up to a Dictator, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, journalist Maria Ressa, reveals how social media is used in many countries to tear down Democracy, with impunity. She explains how she originally applauded the potential of Facebook for connecting people, but soon came to realize its extreme danger in the hands of would-be tyrants seeking power. She warned Mark Zuckerberg and others at Facebook of this danger when there was still time to stop it, but they didn't care and changed nothing.

Her country, the Philippines, is a good example of how influencing people through social media can enable tyrants, as it enabled the dictator Duterte to come to power in 2016 and begin shutting down traditional media committed to telling the truth. The Philippines was a handy blueprint for what social media could achieve in other countries (think Brexit, the rise of the far right in Europe, and the current situation in the USA. Our Constitution (USA) and the Philippine's are very similar, so similar attempts at authoritarian rule by President Donald Trump and his loyalists we are now experiencing are not so surprising.

Ressa's comments and recommendations from How to Stand Up to a Dictator

Social Media's effect on society and elections:

"Social media is a deadly game for power and money...Surveillance capitalism, extracting our private lives for outsized corporate gain...and highly profitable micro-targeting operations are engineered to structurally undermine human will. ...we are all Pavlov's dogs, experimented on in real time with disastrous consequences in countries like...Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka and many more.... (Epilogue)

"Facebook is the world's largest distributor of news, and yet studies have shown that lies laced with anger and hate spread faster and further than facts. These American companies controlling our global information ecosystem are biased against facts...and journalists. They are, by design, dividing us and radicalizing us." (Epilogue)

"Without facts, you can't have truth...How can you have election integrity if you don't have integrity of facts?" (Epilogue)

What we need to do as a society:

Legislation:

• Create new institutions, like the United Nations (UN) after WWII, with new codes stating our values, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• Regulate and outlaw the surveillance economy that profits from hate and lies.

The EU took leadership with the Democracy Action Plan.

The USA should reform or revoke Section 230, a law that treats social media platforms like utilities. (More here.)

Regulations should control algorithms which are programmed by humans with bias.

• Protect journalism:

Rebuild journalism for the 21st century.

Help independent journalism survive.

Shift social priorities to protect journalists, stand up against states that target journalists.

Ressa is co-chair of the International Fund for Public Interest Media, (more here), which raises funds to protect journalists.

Protecting journalism is not an easy task. Ressa gives the example of Google nixing publication of an extensive report entitled "Patriotic Trolling: The Rise of State-Sponsored Online Hate Mobs". (Patriotic trolling is "targeted, State-sponsored online hate and harassment campaigns ...to silence and intimidate individuals." More here and here.)

What we can do as individuals:

"Silence is complicity...Just because others compromise doesn't mean you do. Just because they're silent doesn't mean you have to be." (173)

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest (Elie Wiesel). It can start anywhere. Small actions count.

Never, never, never agree to be intimidated by anyone, no matter who he (she) is. (48)

"I learned to trust: to drop my shields and be vulnerable....That, to me, is strength and why I believe in the goodness of human nature. When you're vulnerable, you create the strongest bonds and the most inspiring possibilities." (45)

How can we be strong enough to act in the face of fear?

Ressa's formula for whenever she feels lost or needs to make a quick decision:

"I look at what I'm afraid of, downplay my ego, then follow the Golden Rule and the Honor Code" (35)

The Golden Rule: Treat others as you would have them treat you. The Honor Pledge code (from Princeton University where Ressa was a student): I will not lie, cheat, plagiarize or be complicit with those who do. I will encourage fellow students who commit honor offenses to acknowledge such offenses to their teacher or the Honor Council. I make this pledge in the spirit of honor and trust.

How do you survive in the midst of crisis?

This question was asked of Ressa when she was reporting in very stressful situations where she still needed to get the story out immediately. She answers, I Take a breath, push my emotions down, stay calm, and summarize the story in 3 sentences. (paraphrase, 49) We can apply this to our own personal situations, even if we're not journalists.

What are you willing to sacrifice?

Democracy is at the point "where we can continue down the path we're on and descend further into fascism or we can choose to fight for a better world. To do that, please, ask yourself: What are YOU willing to sacrifice for the truth?" (Ressa)

Extras

A Filipino word I learned and like from this book:

delicadeza: doing the right thing when you wield power (46)