Transcripts For CSPAN3 Maria 20240705 : vimarsana.com

CSPAN3 Maria July 5, 2024

The National Press club. Were so delighted, so many of here with us today. Im Eileen O Reilly, the president of the National Press club and managing of standards and training and axios thank you for joining us both here and on cspan for a headliner event with journalists and Nobel Laureate maria ressa who is the founder and ceo of rappler a groundbreaking online news site based in the philippines. I am a subscriber, by the way, i love the motto fearless reporting delivered to you. Were to accept your questions. And after graces opening remarks. Ill ask as many as time permits. So seminar question online please email headliners at press dot org and put maria ressa in the subject line. For our cspan and public radio audiences is a light to remind you that in the honest today members of the general public so applause or reaction that you hear not necessarily from the working press where it is now a pleasure introduce this distinguished head table please stand when your name called starting my far right david caprice, dean of the Missouri School journalism journalism. Leslie tucker, writer and guest of the speaker. Yolanda, acting director of voice of america. Jason, writer of global opinions for the washington post. I will skip this figure for now. Kathy kiley, lee, chair and first free press studies, Missouri School of journalism. And thank you for helping coordinate cheese events. Thank you for having me. Course, my immediate left diner line, one larger founder of Dc Media Strategies and passed pc president and of the headliners team. His excellency stavros lebanese ambassador of the European Union to the United States. Rachel Foreign Policy reporter scene q and shes also chair of a press freedom team at the National Press club. And lynnette clements, director of the Wallace House center for journalists at the university of michigan michigan. So in her speech accepting the nobel prize in 2021, maria maria ressa claimed the prize only for herself. But as she put it, for every journalist, the world who is forced to sacrifice so much to hold the line, to stay true to our and our mission, to bring you the truth and hold power to account today the situation for journalists continues to be dire. On friday russian authorities, declared journalist dmitri muratov, with whom maria russas share of the Nobel Peace Prize to be a foreign agent. It is the latest move russian president vladimir putin, to intimidate critics and discouraged independent journalism. Vertov was chief of nagoya gazette, which suspended after russia threatened to punish News Organizations that, criticize its invasion of ukraine. Its journalists now operate out of latvia. Reporters borders last week condemned the hong government after a barred three freelance journalists who had covered the 2019 prodemocracy demonstrate actions from entering the territory, a method routinely used the Chinese Government to punish foreign it perceived to be to critical. Our very own executive director didier saji, who used to run the Foreign Correspondent club of hong kong, can attest to the growing crackdown on journalists happening there and it worries all us. And of course there, is wall street journal reporter evan gersh, whose parents have joined us today. Evan was detained in russia on march 29th while on a reporting trip and charged with espionage the journal and the Us Government deny the allegation against him. Hes now spent five months in at moscows prison without trial or even a trial date as russian investigators ask the court to extend his pretrial detention to november 30th, the National Press club once again calls for evans Immediate Release free evan now. We are also aware that watching us today are many exiles journalists from across the globe who have persevered despite to their lives and livelihood. Please know you are always here at the National Press club. Maria ressa, the 2020 winner of the National Press clubs john Aviation Press freedom award, knows what its like to, as a journalist in a country that viewed her as a threat to be eliminated, the administration, former philippine president rodrigo duterte, targeted her with multiple charges over the years, including tax evasion and cyber libel. Her real crime in his eyes, the practice of journalism reporting by ressa and her team at rappler expose government corruption and Rights Violations associated with deterrence for drugs and the government manipulation of social media to spread disinformation. Were looking forward to hearing more about the state of press freedom today. Please join me in a warm press club welcome for noble laureate and ambassador and press freedom winner maria ressa. Wow. Im going to set a timer for so that i stay on time that we can actually take questions. So, first of all, thank you so much for coming. So many faces in the room. I am here partly to thank so many of you who have helped keep the organization. I lead wrap alive and me out of jail and and i hope that in the next 30 minutes i will lay out the access problems we face journalists many of which you are living through, starting those of you who are forced to live in exile. Please raise your hand if happened to you, raise hand. Okay. If thats why youre here, i have words for you. But then, beyond that i want to go on to how the News Organizations that were part of can survive what i started calling the tech enabled armageddon. We are living through tech enabled armageddon. Is it too much . Im going to explain i promise ill explain. So first i have to say thank you to National Press club, to its president , Eileen O Reilly to bill mccarran, michael friedman, angela keene, who not only spoke up for us when fear reigned in the philippines in 2020, but also thank you for the John Aubuchon freedom prize. It came at a time when there was tremendous uncertainty in our lives and it helped give us courage to keep going. This woman, kathy kiely, jumped into action and helped the Princeton University alumni and the university of missouri its dean, david cooper gropius, who is also for arming future right when we need their energy and their commitment, this is the time we need them the most. You remind me of something we often when were in crisis, but really something that not only gives us hope but reminds us that despite the bad because there are a lot of bad and we journalists start with that despite the bad there is still plenty of good. Thats one of the biggest lessons i learned and, you know, i wrote this in in my latest, how to stand up to a dictator. I almost sound like a journalist. How despite the things, i was always surprised by the kindness of strangers, i didnt know many you in this room and you helped us and i hope that we then pay it forward, that we help others. You helped us shine the light to push back the darkness. And despite the fears we had, it is scary because when a state attacks you youre actually guilty until youre innocent. And thats the way people treat you our lawyers told us we were crazy to stand our ground. But were still here. Were not were were not out of the woods yet. You know, i still have to ask for court to travel. I had to go all the way to the philippines supreme court, be with you today. They have to approve my travel plans, but. Well, were still fighting a potential shutdown of the News Organization i lead but were still doing the stories on corruption, on disinformation, on disinformation. And the operations that are insidious slowly manipulating all of us on this. Right. Are crazy to the truth, to protecting the public sphere. Well, that the largest toll on our family. So please let recognize the parents of hershkowitz. Please up. That is the journalists equivalent love. We dont use the word often enough, but let our our passion bolster your hope. Jason rezaian, who was jailed in for 544 days. Hell tell that winning the battle starts with keeping hope alive. You. He gave me his book right at the time. I was actually most afraid and i read it in one sitting it is it is hope that turns action and thats how you get through this for those journalists are living in exile in many ways are Unsung Heroes you know that firsthand right. Forced to flee country you continue to work from exile you live in countries where journalism is a noble act of defiance against authoritarianism, corruption, human abuses, journalists stand up to oppressive governments who view the free press as a threat to their power. Michael, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, you just heard that he was last week just named a designated a foreign by russia. He has since resigned as the head of Novaya Gazeta and plans to stay and fight it in court. There are times, though, when the risks are too great. That is tough decision to leave your country. When you do, you leave behind your family, friends, culture, everything you know and hold dear. To come to a foreign nation. To fight for you. Hold dear. There at least 20 of you here in the room today. These journalists need safe havens, Legal Assistance and platforms. We need to continue doing. You need to continue doing your to amplify your voices and insights and ensure that your stories and your sacrifices are recognized. I know later youll have discussions to try to consolidate efforts to help these journalists not just survive, but thrive. It could lead a new model where it comes bottom up, right . When i used to work with cnn, we set up 31 bureaus around the world down. Why can we not do this bottom up . Thats part of what we can how we can turn tech for good, because their passion, their commitment, it can supercharge. Others who may not that same hard won clarity. Let me move now to the big the existential threats, our profession and the Business News faces today. I hope you take three things out of the next few minutes. One, those you who know me will know this very well. How technology is inside, asleep, manipulating us, changing our behavior to how were walking. If you play basketball, the last 2 minutes of democracy, three. What we need to do because i cant leave you so depressed. All the bad news right . So you pull back me, right . Because this is the full of it, right . We still have all the old World Problems solve the u. N. Development goals like this is still there to try to end poverty. Bricks and mortars, fact of production of governance, conflict. Of trying to end all of that is there. Those were just the old stories we have. But now. We also have big data. Big data has changed everything. The increase computational power of our machines has allowed Technology Companies to hack our biology right to change the way we think and act by insights. Our emotions become going in and stirring our amygdala. The prize is our attention. This is the new economic system, the attention economy with a new Business Model that we didnt have a name for until 19. Its what shoshana, you know, her 750 page book, harvard professor emeritus. She called it she coined the phrase surveillance capitalism the last time human beings were commodified this way for for profit was during the age of industrialization, and that was our labor, not our attention. Our. We had sweatshops, child labor. When Industry Analysts realized they could create a factory line making production faster, exploiting people on those lines. It was the age of the robber baron in the u. S. Robber barons. There were more than one carnegie names that we know now. Carnegie, rockefeller. What happened then . People came together and formed unions to fight for their rights and government, creating laws to stop these unfair labor practices. This todays new barons. Who are they . Theyre the ceos of Technology Companies involved in surveillance capitalism. And let me define that. When atomized personal experience is are collected by machine organized Artificial Intelligence, it extracts our private lives for corporate gain highly profitable micro targeting operations. Its called advertising. But it isnt the old media advertising. Right . These microtargeting is structurally engineered to undermine human. In the nobel lecture, i it a behavior modification system in which we are pavlo dogs experimental done in real time with disastrous consequences. I know thats a mouthful. A mouthful. Let me break it down for you. Right. Think about it like this every time. Post something on facebook. Machine learning comes in and takes all the posts. Lets say you put in 15 posts and then it uses it basically uses that youre relationships. If you do the marketing or you do the dating, it takes all that data plus data it gets from outside and builds a model of you that knows you better than you know. Right . Replace the word model with clone. So it clones us. Did you give permission to be cloned . No. But the companies because they used machine that they now own clones. Then Artificial Intelligence comes in and takes all of our clones. And that becomes the mother lode database that is used for microtargeting. Whats microtargeting . It is taking your weakest moment to message and selling it to someone else to nudge you right. Okay. Mark zuckerberg, who in my book i compared, you know, how do you stand up to a dictator . I asked you whether or not whos the bigger dictator . My former president duterte or mark zuckerberg. How many more people does he dictate to . Right. Well, he said that that each of our clones are worth about dollars every three months. Okay. Then they should pay for it if thats the case. But the other part is the part thats interesting. The more of our clones you put together, the more valuable that dataset. Right . The larger data set, the more value it gets. These engagement based of the Tech Companies mean that the incentive structure of the algorithms and lets just define algorithm an algorithm is nothing more than an opinion in code. So cathy has an opinion she made an editorial choice and you put it in code and its replicated millions of times. What if cathy was wrong . Cathys never wrong, but right. So its just opinion and code. Its replicated at a scale we have never imagined it insidiously shaping future and encouraging the worst of human behavior. And let me explain. Every statement i made is backed by data, right . In 2018. Am mit published a study that showed that lies spread six times faster than the really boring facts we journalists use our data from the philippines shows that that the lie spreads more than six times faster if its with anger and hate. In the nobel lecture i called it toxic sludge. That is what is coursing. That is the incentive structure, the communication ecosystem have today. So these next three sentences ive said over and over since 16, because it is the core of the way our world has been turned upside. You know i talk about net flicks Stranger Things how we went into the upside down. The three sentences remember. Lies spread six times faster. So means you have no facts. Okay. The three sentences. If you have no facts, you cant truth without truth. You cant have trust without these three. We have no shared reality, no rule of law we have no democracy journalists, human rights defenders, anyone attack were defenseless against Information Warfare because that what it is and at this time the move for profit and authoritarians using this technique to consolidate power they align were there thats part it so the same methodology that was used to attack me so i know this you know this is what happens when you come under attack you can collect the data. So that same method was, you know, bottom. Exponential attacks in 2016. I started getting an average of 99 zero hate messages per hour lasted a very long time. Now you pound a lie a million times. It becomes a fact. All right, so then it comes bottom. The kind of weaponization of social media followed top down a year later by our president. President to, in our case, the meta narrative that was seeded against me was. Journalist equals criminal. Thats happening to you here as well. By the way. But then about a year later, president duterte in his state of the nation said the same thing a million times. Journalists equals criminal. Maria is a criminal. Then president duterte the same thing a week after. He said that in his state of the nation, all i could do was, you know, i was covering it live and all i did was president. Youre wrong in my little tweet. You know. Oh, yeah. X. Anyway so a week after president duterte said that we got our first subpoena, we had 14 investigations in 2018. And then i had my arrest warrants coming, one after the other through eight of them in three months, but then a total of ten in 2019 in in my latest book, how to stand up to a dictator i showed where we first saw Information Warfare impact the world in 2014 when russia meta narratives to annex lb and suppress facts to silence. So get rid of the facts, then replace them with the same meta narratives which have grown over time that was used eight years later. In 2022 to invade ukraine itself. You know, we know meta narratives. 2014 was also the year we saw Information Operations that literally philippine history in front of our eyes transforming marcos the kleptocratic who was kicked out in a people power revolt in 1986. But in 2014, National Press<\/a> club. Were so delighted, so many of here with us today. Im Eileen O Reilly<\/a>, the president of the National Press<\/a> club and managing of standards and training and axios thank you for joining us both here and on cspan for a headliner event with journalists and Nobel Laureate<\/a> maria ressa who is the founder and ceo of rappler a groundbreaking online news site based in the philippines. I am a subscriber, by the way, i love the motto fearless reporting delivered to you. Were to accept your questions. And after graces opening remarks. Ill ask as many as time permits. So seminar question online please email headliners at press dot org and put maria ressa in the subject line. For our cspan and public radio audiences is a light to remind you that in the honest today members of the general public so applause or reaction that you hear not necessarily from the working press where it is now a pleasure introduce this distinguished head table please stand when your name called starting my far right david caprice, dean of the Missouri School<\/a> journalism journalism. Leslie tucker, writer and guest of the speaker. Yolanda, acting director of voice of america. Jason, writer of global opinions for the washington post. I will skip this figure for now. Kathy kiley, lee, chair and first free press studies, Missouri School<\/a> of journalism. And thank you for helping coordinate cheese events. Thank you for having me. Course, my immediate left diner line, one larger founder of Dc Media Strategies<\/a> and passed pc president and of the headliners team. His excellency stavros lebanese ambassador of the European Union<\/a> to the United States<\/a>. Rachel Foreign Policy<\/a> reporter scene q and shes also chair of a press freedom team at the National Press<\/a> club. And lynnette clements, director of the Wallace House<\/a> center for journalists at the university of michigan michigan. So in her speech accepting the nobel prize in 2021, maria maria ressa claimed the prize only for herself. But as she put it, for every journalist, the world who is forced to sacrifice so much to hold the line, to stay true to our and our mission, to bring you the truth and hold power to account today the situation for journalists continues to be dire. On friday russian authorities, declared journalist dmitri muratov, with whom maria russas share of the Nobel Peace Prize<\/a> to be a foreign agent. It is the latest move russian president vladimir putin, to intimidate critics and discouraged independent journalism. Vertov was chief of nagoya gazette, which suspended after russia threatened to punish News Organization<\/a>s that, criticize its invasion of ukraine. Its journalists now operate out of latvia. Reporters borders last week condemned the hong government after a barred three freelance journalists who had covered the 2019 prodemocracy demonstrate actions from entering the territory, a method routinely used the Chinese Government<\/a> to punish foreign it perceived to be to critical. Our very own executive director didier saji, who used to run the Foreign Correspondent<\/a> club of hong kong, can attest to the growing crackdown on journalists happening there and it worries all us. And of course there, is wall street journal reporter evan gersh, whose parents have joined us today. Evan was detained in russia on march 29th while on a reporting trip and charged with espionage the journal and the Us Government<\/a> deny the allegation against him. Hes now spent five months in at moscows prison without trial or even a trial date as russian investigators ask the court to extend his pretrial detention to november 30th, the National Press<\/a> club once again calls for evans Immediate Release<\/a> free evan now. We are also aware that watching us today are many exiles journalists from across the globe who have persevered despite to their lives and livelihood. Please know you are always here at the National Press<\/a> club. Maria ressa, the 2020 winner of the National Press<\/a> clubs john Aviation Press<\/a> freedom award, knows what its like to, as a journalist in a country that viewed her as a threat to be eliminated, the administration, former philippine president rodrigo duterte, targeted her with multiple charges over the years, including tax evasion and cyber libel. Her real crime in his eyes, the practice of journalism reporting by ressa and her team at rappler expose government corruption and Rights Violations<\/a> associated with deterrence for drugs and the government manipulation of social media to spread disinformation. Were looking forward to hearing more about the state of press freedom today. Please join me in a warm press club welcome for noble laureate and ambassador and press freedom winner maria ressa. Wow. Im going to set a timer for so that i stay on time that we can actually take questions. So, first of all, thank you so much for coming. So many faces in the room. I am here partly to thank so many of you who have helped keep the organization. I lead wrap alive and me out of jail and and i hope that in the next 30 minutes i will lay out the access problems we face journalists many of which you are living through, starting those of you who are forced to live in exile. Please raise your hand if happened to you, raise hand. Okay. If thats why youre here, i have words for you. But then, beyond that i want to go on to how the News Organization<\/a>s that were part of can survive what i started calling the tech enabled armageddon. We are living through tech enabled armageddon. Is it too much . Im going to explain i promise ill explain. So first i have to say thank you to National Press<\/a> club, to its president , Eileen O Reilly<\/a> to bill mccarran, michael friedman, angela keene, who not only spoke up for us when fear reigned in the philippines in 2020, but also thank you for the John Aubuchon<\/a> freedom prize. It came at a time when there was tremendous uncertainty in our lives and it helped give us courage to keep going. This woman, kathy kiely, jumped into action and helped the Princeton University<\/a> alumni and the university of missouri its dean, david cooper gropius, who is also for arming future right when we need their energy and their commitment, this is the time we need them the most. You remind me of something we often when were in crisis, but really something that not only gives us hope but reminds us that despite the bad because there are a lot of bad and we journalists start with that despite the bad there is still plenty of good. Thats one of the biggest lessons i learned and, you know, i wrote this in in my latest, how to stand up to a dictator. I almost sound like a journalist. How despite the things, i was always surprised by the kindness of strangers, i didnt know many you in this room and you helped us and i hope that we then pay it forward, that we help others. You helped us shine the light to push back the darkness. And despite the fears we had, it is scary because when a state attacks you youre actually guilty until youre innocent. And thats the way people treat you our lawyers told us we were crazy to stand our ground. But were still here. Were not were were not out of the woods yet. You know, i still have to ask for court to travel. I had to go all the way to the philippines supreme court, be with you today. They have to approve my travel plans, but. Well, were still fighting a potential shutdown of the News Organization<\/a> i lead but were still doing the stories on corruption, on disinformation, on disinformation. And the operations that are insidious slowly manipulating all of us on this. Right. Are crazy to the truth, to protecting the public sphere. Well, that the largest toll on our family. So please let recognize the parents of hershkowitz. Please up. That is the journalists equivalent love. We dont use the word often enough, but let our our passion bolster your hope. Jason rezaian, who was jailed in for 544 days. Hell tell that winning the battle starts with keeping hope alive. You. He gave me his book right at the time. I was actually most afraid and i read it in one sitting it is it is hope that turns action and thats how you get through this for those journalists are living in exile in many ways are Unsung Heroes<\/a> you know that firsthand right. Forced to flee country you continue to work from exile you live in countries where journalism is a noble act of defiance against authoritarianism, corruption, human abuses, journalists stand up to oppressive governments who view the free press as a threat to their power. Michael, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize<\/a>, you just heard that he was last week just named a designated a foreign by russia. He has since resigned as the head of Novaya Gazeta<\/a> and plans to stay and fight it in court. There are times, though, when the risks are too great. That is tough decision to leave your country. When you do, you leave behind your family, friends, culture, everything you know and hold dear. To come to a foreign nation. To fight for you. Hold dear. There at least 20 of you here in the room today. These journalists need safe havens, Legal Assistance<\/a> and platforms. We need to continue doing. You need to continue doing your to amplify your voices and insights and ensure that your stories and your sacrifices are recognized. I know later youll have discussions to try to consolidate efforts to help these journalists not just survive, but thrive. It could lead a new model where it comes bottom up, right . When i used to work with cnn, we set up 31 bureaus around the world down. Why can we not do this bottom up . Thats part of what we can how we can turn tech for good, because their passion, their commitment, it can supercharge. Others who may not that same hard won clarity. Let me move now to the big the existential threats, our profession and the Business News<\/a> faces today. I hope you take three things out of the next few minutes. One, those you who know me will know this very well. How technology is inside, asleep, manipulating us, changing our behavior to how were walking. If you play basketball, the last 2 minutes of democracy, three. What we need to do because i cant leave you so depressed. All the bad news right . So you pull back me, right . Because this is the full of it, right . We still have all the old World Problems<\/a> solve the u. N. Development goals like this is still there to try to end poverty. Bricks and mortars, fact of production of governance, conflict. Of trying to end all of that is there. Those were just the old stories we have. But now. We also have big data. Big data has changed everything. The increase computational power of our machines has allowed Technology Companies<\/a> to hack our biology right to change the way we think and act by insights. Our emotions become going in and stirring our amygdala. The prize is our attention. This is the new economic system, the attention economy with a new Business Model<\/a> that we didnt have a name for until 19. Its what shoshana, you know, her 750 page book, harvard professor emeritus. She called it she coined the phrase surveillance capitalism the last time human beings were commodified this way for for profit was during the age of industrialization, and that was our labor, not our attention. Our. We had sweatshops, child labor. When Industry Analysts<\/a> realized they could create a factory line making production faster, exploiting people on those lines. It was the age of the robber baron in the u. S. Robber barons. There were more than one carnegie names that we know now. Carnegie, rockefeller. What happened then . People came together and formed unions to fight for their rights and government, creating laws to stop these unfair labor practices. This todays new barons. Who are they . Theyre the ceos of Technology Companies<\/a> involved in surveillance capitalism. And let me define that. When atomized personal experience is are collected by machine organized Artificial Intelligence<\/a>, it extracts our private lives for corporate gain highly profitable micro targeting operations. Its called advertising. But it isnt the old media advertising. Right . These microtargeting is structurally engineered to undermine human. In the nobel lecture, i it a behavior modification system in which we are pavlo dogs experimental done in real time with disastrous consequences. I know thats a mouthful. A mouthful. Let me break it down for you. Right. Think about it like this every time. Post something on facebook. Machine learning comes in and takes all the posts. Lets say you put in 15 posts and then it uses it basically uses that youre relationships. If you do the marketing or you do the dating, it takes all that data plus data it gets from outside and builds a model of you that knows you better than you know. Right . Replace the word model with clone. So it clones us. Did you give permission to be cloned . No. But the companies because they used machine that they now own clones. Then Artificial Intelligence<\/a> comes in and takes all of our clones. And that becomes the mother lode database that is used for microtargeting. Whats microtargeting . It is taking your weakest moment to message and selling it to someone else to nudge you right. Okay. Mark zuckerberg, who in my book i compared, you know, how do you stand up to a dictator . I asked you whether or not whos the bigger dictator . My former president duterte or mark zuckerberg. How many more people does he dictate to . Right. Well, he said that that each of our clones are worth about dollars every three months. Okay. Then they should pay for it if thats the case. But the other part is the part thats interesting. The more of our clones you put together, the more valuable that dataset. Right . The larger data set, the more value it gets. These engagement based of the Tech Companies<\/a> mean that the incentive structure of the algorithms and lets just define algorithm an algorithm is nothing more than an opinion in code. So cathy has an opinion she made an editorial choice and you put it in code and its replicated millions of times. What if cathy was wrong . Cathys never wrong, but right. So its just opinion and code. Its replicated at a scale we have never imagined it insidiously shaping future and encouraging the worst of human behavior. And let me explain. Every statement i made is backed by data, right . In 2018. Am mit published a study that showed that lies spread six times faster than the really boring facts we journalists use our data from the philippines shows that that the lie spreads more than six times faster if its with anger and hate. In the nobel lecture i called it toxic sludge. That is what is coursing. That is the incentive structure, the communication ecosystem have today. So these next three sentences ive said over and over since 16, because it is the core of the way our world has been turned upside. You know i talk about net flicks Stranger Things<\/a> how we went into the upside down. The three sentences remember. Lies spread six times faster. So means you have no facts. Okay. The three sentences. If you have no facts, you cant truth without truth. You cant have trust without these three. We have no shared reality, no rule of law we have no democracy journalists, human rights defenders, anyone attack were defenseless against Information Warfare<\/a> because that what it is and at this time the move for profit and authoritarians using this technique to consolidate power they align were there thats part it so the same methodology that was used to attack me so i know this you know this is what happens when you come under attack you can collect the data. So that same method was, you know, bottom. Exponential attacks in 2016. I started getting an average of 99 zero hate messages per hour lasted a very long time. Now you pound a lie a million times. It becomes a fact. All right, so then it comes bottom. The kind of weaponization of social media followed top down a year later by our president. President to, in our case, the meta narrative that was seeded against me was. Journalist equals criminal. Thats happening to you here as well. By the way. But then about a year later, president duterte in his state of the nation said the same thing a million times. Journalists equals criminal. Maria is a criminal. Then president duterte the same thing a week after. He said that in his state of the nation, all i could do was, you know, i was covering it live and all i did was president. Youre wrong in my little tweet. You know. Oh, yeah. X. Anyway so a week after president duterte said that we got our first subpoena, we had 14 investigations in 2018. And then i had my arrest warrants coming, one after the other through eight of them in three months, but then a total of ten in 2019 in in my latest book, how to stand up to a dictator i showed where we first saw Information Warfare<\/a> impact the world in 2014 when russia meta narratives to annex lb and suppress facts to silence. So get rid of the facts, then replace them with the same meta narratives which have grown over time that was used eight years later. In 2022 to invade ukraine itself. You know, we know meta narratives. 2014 was also the year we saw Information Operations<\/a> that literally philippine history in front of our eyes transforming marcos the kleptocratic who was kicked out in a people power revolt in 1986. But in 2014, Information Operations<\/a> turned the name marcos from a kleptocratic to the best leader the philippines has ever had. Milan kundera really it best the struggle man against power is, the struggle of memory against forgetting Technology Makes<\/a> us forget, changes the narrative right . There is no difference between our online world and physical world because theres only one of us. We live both worlds which are why are there laws online violence, real world violence. If you can make. People believe lies are facts, then you can control them. In my nobel lecture, i said that an atom bomb exploded our information ecosystem. And because we need to prevent humanity from doing its worst, we need new laws to protect us. I mean, the core law here, the United States<\/a> is the 1996 Communications Decency<\/a> act, section 238, which allows the Tech Companies<\/a>, gives them impunity to continue to distribute the lies. This isnt a freedom speech issue. Its a safety issue. Its an engineer issue. These Technology Companies<\/a>, the new gatekeepers, our public sphere is least regulated industry globally. The Cambridge Analytica<\/a> whistleblower, chris wylie, he came to manila. And, you know, we were talking about this. Hes he pointed out that to get a toaster in your home here in the United States<\/a>, that that toaster will have to pass more safety regulations than this. Right the platforms want you to debate content, because if youre stuck there, they make more money. So, you know, i think about our information ecosystem as a river and this polluted river. Content, moderation is here. So its kind of like you took a glass of water. You took something from the downstream in the river. You dropped the pill to clear up the water. Thats content, moderation. And then you dump the water back into the river right. So i nudge further upstream. Lets that factory lies that continues to pollute the river right. Because thats where safety if we move upside to algorithmic amplification thats the operating system you go further to the root causes. What are they . Surveillance, capitalism thats where safety, privacy, antiterror, rest and yes, content, moderation intersect there. These are not issues we cant. Well, let me do one last thing, which is last april was at an event with al gore. So i spoke before him and then he spoke after and he said, you know, ive been talking about Climate Change<\/a> for decades. He said on stage, we cant solve the climate crisis. This is existential, right we know this. How hard is it now, right . We cannot solve the climate crisis, he said, until we solve the democracy crisis and we cant do that until we fix the corruption of our information ecosystem, right . Lies cannot faster than facts, so we cant solve the global existential problems. If we dont win the battle for facts. Okay, its to get worse. I know i have such good news for you. Lets go. I. Artificial intelligence, which is neither artificial nor right. So a. I. Has beaten every time and there have really two instances. The First Contact<\/a> i already described to you Machine Learning<\/a> in social media that has created cascading failures that has turned our politics all around the world into a gladio leaders battle to the death, the kind of radicalization that used to cover when it came to radicalize and terrorists creating suicide bombers. Right. This is now the way our politics been radicalized. It brings it well, what it did is it brought with it a whole slew of social harms that have yet be fixed or even acknowledged. But gender disinformation and the kind of of weaponization that women leaders, whether theyre journalists human rights activists or politic agents, it is far worse. We have lost so much ground. So, okay, we have yet to fix that, but were still debating whether its a problem. A problem. I have the data from the philippines if you dont believe me, but i you have data here as well. All right. Heres the last part of this. And this connects to 2024. We are global electing illiberal leaders democratically. The we remember and hitler was elected democratically. If we dont have integrity of facts, we cannot have integrity of elections. The statistics and let me reel them off their dire Freedom House<\/a> as chronicled a decline in democracies for the last 17 years thats been matched by increasing attacks and harassment. Journalists in the last decade. So its only been like a decade. But this is clear in the World Press Freedom<\/a> index. Read them out of sweden last year said that 60 of the world now lives under authoritarian rule. Last year this year that number went up to. 72 . I will i will tweet these studies. So at the beginning of last year, we counted key elections, though this january, this year, 2023, we counted the elections between 2023 and 2024. Theyre 99 zero critical elections. And if we dont do anything significant to change the pattern, if we do our journalism like it is business as usual, and i do not mean to take sides, but we need to redefine the paradigm, right . Because we live in new world. If we do this like is business as usual and we let tech move forward, we will continue you electing illiberal leaders democratically and they will do the same thing that happened in my country. They will crush the institutions of democracy. But they dont stay in their own countries. They then ally together, right . They create alliances as and now if you look at some of the reports, some of those those tools that were once used by democrat nations like trade sanctions, these things wont work anymore. There arent enough democratic nations. So they begin to form these alliances. Its kleptocracy inc, power and money. So how do you get more power and . Money. And they exploit the technology to do that. It doesnt matter whether its tik tok or facebook or x or whatever social use right in lets talk 20, 24 in january. Therell be elections in taiwan. Thats crucial china in february, the Worlds Largest<\/a> Muslim Population<\/a> maybe canada the eu will have elections and. You hear the United States<\/a> will. Well know whether democracy or dies by the end. Of 2024. Okay. Theres more. I hope that you will move on this right in november 20, 22. Generative a. I. Large language models, far more complex and sophisticated, was released into. The public sphere, right. A real experiment that will further test our humanity. And if social media was exponential growth, generative ai is exponential exponential like its beyond the scale. You see the graph, right . Essentially the machine is fed everything. The structured data of books of websites including including every news website you have. And of course did they ask us for permission. No, there. But heres the kicker. Also threw in we know as far as gpt three this is the case the unstructured data of social media. Remember what i just said spread faster. So social media full of lies, anger, hate. All of that is in the elm, right . So heres what it does. The machine looks for patterns, and what it does is it goes word for word faster than each of our. So the first gpt was kind of unremarkable because the Computing Power<\/a> wasnt that big. The second one gp2 used. I am 1. 5 billion. Paramo was shipped to gpt three was 175 billion parameter 1. 5 to 175 billion and gpt four, which was released march this is between 1000000000000 to 100 trillion. Theyre not announced it anymore. It is exponential. Exponential. If the first generation i was curation. The second is creation literally like it hallucinates it. No guardrails with the responsibility of protecting left in the hands of actually i think theyre largely men who are rushing ahead for profit and if social media weaponized our fear hate our tribalism whats generative a. I. Going to weaponize you look at the pattern and it will weaponize the inherent loneliness in each of us thats what were seeing all right so im coming to the end. I have 2 minutes left. So obviously i tell you this because the future in our hands, this is it we have use generative. I mean weve used it in rappler for our president ial elections in may 2022. There were we had 18,000 simultaneous elections. I wanted a biography of every single candidate. I have ten reporters, right. So we did is we structured the data through it into gpt three and the machine created nearly 50,000 pages biographies at the bottom of every page. It says this page is created with gpt three and checked by Rappler Research<\/a> checked right it was it worked. In july, rappler began testing generative ai on our cms, our back end and we quietly rolled out a black button. If you go there, youll see on top of our share button on every article you that. And it will give you three bullet points of the a summary of the article youre referring to. It hasnt yet been wrong because we constricted it, right. We controlled the data. We thought about this when the i hallucinate or lies should, we use it. And what we did was to fix the parameters. So the data it would use and the demand for it would limit its ability to hallucinate. But that means you also it also cant do everything for everyone. So so far the experiment is working, rolling that out, even if it works, will change the way our audience reads. And there are now different ways that come out, right . The experience is different, will you read more or less . This is what well wind up seeing . So ive talked a lot of big things and i have a few minutes. I guess the last is this. We are connected and this is what technology has actually us more than anything. The war is not just in ukraine. It isnt happening out there. Its happening for each of us in our phones, in our pockets. It is an individual for integrity. As long as you have that cell phone that connects you to the machine. So how to stand up to a dictator is now translated more than 20 languages. Right. And its interesting because its the countries that have leaders that first translated it. Hungary in mongolian. Mongolian trapped between china and russia. Two different portuguese, one for portugal, another for brazil japanese, korean, mandarin came out in june, arabic coming in november. I wrote about the philippine experience in data in social media how for six years in a row we spent the most time online and on media globally. What we went through in rappler, how the corruption of our information ecosystem system affected our systems governance. Its all there, but all this is not out there. It is happening to you now. What do we do in the long term . I have give please give me a few minutes to. Give you the plus news. It is education, right . We need thats the long term. But the medium term is legislation where are you . United states. Right. The eu has come out with its Digital Services<\/a> act, which kicked into place at the end of august. We will now academics, journalists will have access to real time across platforms. Data is the only way we can hold them accountable. Thats the medium term. In the short term, it is just us and we must act like the world has changed, right . Our shifts, our Civic Engagement<\/a> shifts. We need to stop being passive users or i guess we have to redefine what Civic Engagement<\/a> we need to become citizens today of this. What does being a citizen mean in the age of exponentially rise . We have to organize, collaborate. This is weird coming a journalist. I know that sounds hard. Let me explain what i mean because we treat this time as business as usual. It isnt. This is all we have. And ill show you what we did. The philippines right. Its another we to try new ways of telling stories of its not up to us to restore trust. This is going to be something that were going to have to do in our areas of influence. But in our may 2022 elections, we worked with. 150 different groups to create a four layer hashtag, first page, pyramid. What do i mean by that layer one where 16 news organized nations working together for the first time in the philippines, we gave them kpis and everything that our news groups created it became Creative Commons<\/a> license meaning anyone can use it these fact checks remember boring checks they dont spread so the second layer is called the mesh this is 116 Civil Society<\/a> groups human rights groups. The church came in, business groups came in and we did a an influence through Marketing Campaign<\/a> for fax and we told every one of the 116 they had to share those boring fact checks, but they shared it with emotion and they couldnt use anger. What we found from the data is, guess what . Emotion spreads as fast as anger. Inspiration, inspiration spreads fast as anger. That was a new we actually were literally able to take over the center of the Facebook Information<\/a> ecosystem. The third layer, academic institutions, the election that was spurred inspired by the Election Integrity<\/a> partnership you guys had here most of those academic institutions have been are now failing legal cases, right . I mean, failing are now facing legal cases. So are they going to do their for the 2024 elections . Theres a chilling effect. You are just starting to feel that gone through. We need to pull out our third layer, the academic partners. They took all the data that came up from every one of the 16 News Organization<\/a>s. And every week they told people what was the matter narrative being seeded, who was who was losing . And it wasnt a horse race in that sense. It was literally taking apart the inside manipulation of the ecosystem. Finally, ill leave it with layer four. That is the law. Remember again, you cant have integrity of fact. You cant have rule of law. If you do not have integrity of are legal pyramid. The fourth layer they filed more than 20 cases in about three months that protected this pyramid. Youre going to have this to prevent fear of legal cases from stopping you from your civic duty. This is handtohand combat for a person person defense of our democracy. I havent given up hope right. I would argue that this is its not only the Technology Companies<\/a> that abdicated responsibility to protect the public sphere, it is also an abdication of democratic governments, like the United States<\/a>, to set standards of safety. We need a Better Business<\/a> bureau, our minds and our emotions. Rachel, in the absence of journalist, a news organizer who are under attack every day whose credibility is being eroded because thats what these platforms, thats what Information Warfare<\/a> is done. Our model. Advertising is dead. We have to with what we have. So i, i told you, i havent given up hope. You shouldnt. Were rolling out new technology before the end of the year. One that aligns with what we want. The elevator pitch of rapper in 2011 is that we build communities of action and the food feed our communities is. If we dont have the facts, we cannot. The worlds problems right. Last. I will say i just tweeted before we came in the ten point action plan that Dimitri Muratov<\/a> and i, along with 300 Nobel Laureate<\/a>s and Civil Society<\/a> groups, we rolled it out last year. It has three basic buckets. Bucket one is stop for profit. Bucket two is stop coded. If you are a woman and lgbtq, you know, coded bias was a movie where a black female m. I. T. Student, joy buolamwini, couldnt the ai experiment until she put a white face on so that the ai can recognize her. Thats bucket to stop coded bias. And then bucket three is the last one. As an antidote to tyranny. This is it. Last 2 minutes. Thank you. Sorry. Im very geeky. I hope i didnt bore you that amazing. Thank you so much. Is very inspiring. So thank you. We have a bunch of questions and well try to do a rapid fire thing. Thats okay. So how do you get the to support the facts when . They prefer lies that fit with their opinions, personal narratives. Wow. Thats. Oh, so how do you get the public to support the facts . Literally build our communities in rappler. You know youre not its not the old world where can just we dont have as journalists the power we used to have we never to explain our standards and ethics because we held the power. Now you have to nurture your communities. And are we are weak splintering axios is actually doing a good job we are splintered by the tech right so what do you have to do. You cant just create journalism. You have to build communities. This is part of our jobs today. So thats what we do and we reach out. The thing is like behavioral scientists will tell you that cognitive bias will kick in and youre not going to be able to rationally change someones. Thats also okay. Its okay to agree to disagree. Its not okay to be violent. Right. I also think thats part of where we fall wrong is as reporters sometimes is that we try to make it fit the old where both sides. Right but the uae on the side of evidence. Right. You weigh in on side of evidence and that requires more courage today than ever to point when you were talking about advancement of generative a. I. Such as chad, djibouti. Who do you think should be the regulator of that . Wow. Oh, wow. I mean, you know, so i sit on the Leadership Panel<\/a> of the Internet Governance Forum<\/a> of the u. N. , the u. N. , which i keep. I wish i wanted to move faster, faster. In the nobel lecture talked about the u. N. Was after the atom bomb to stop humanity from doing worst to each other. We need Something Like<\/a> that today. But, you know, spoken and long winded answer. Let me go to the point of the in it as as one of ten people that was selected by, the secretary general. Or online. Ill say it anyway, i can fall asleep and. Then ill wake up and well be in the same place for 2 hours. I want us to move faster because i think running out of time but that the that is we used to create bureaucracies so that we could we could make sure we could clear right so that you can you make sure that youre legal whatever whatever but the world we live in today moves at exponential exponential pace and we need to able to move to the pace of the tech which rolls out code a minimum two weeks. So by time we create new laws we created laws for something that is already extinct. Right so this. So do we need who will who will do that . Certainly not the ceos who it nothing against them. But in many ways its like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. We need to be able to have someone for us. Who is that . What is the regulatory . One of the things that we hope is that the existing regulatory bodies today will begin to reorient. Right. That they will take a look at the world the way it is, and then look at things like if something is illegal in the real world, like is algore segregation illegal, it should be right. So these are some the things these are all things were still sorting out. Im telling. Im throwing spaghetti against the wall wall. What is your assessment of pending u. S. Senate legislation . The platform accountability and transparency. We support it. Kosher. The kids Online Safety<\/a> act and the platform accountability transparency act. We. But the point is, i guess your Political Parties<\/a> have to stop looking at this as political problems. Theyre actually safety problems for us and we need to look like look you do not need to know how an airplane works to. Make sure the airplane wont crash. Right to regulate it. Theyre building codes. We know this building is not going to fall on us because it had to meet requirements. So thats kind what what im after. Youve talked in the about creating a new social media platform. Will this be a rival to facebook, the platform formerly known as twitter . What you envision and how close are you to this . Were actually playing with different internet protocols now. Were in a tcp ip protocol. Vint cerf, by the way, is the chair of the Leadership Panel<\/a> of the internet governance. Im the vice chair. He started the tcp ip protocol, but that protocol has led to tremendous fraud. Right. Were with something called the matrix. Please take a look at it. Google it. The matrix protocol is used by. Countries like germany. Their websites are under matrix protocol. The eu is using is beginning to use the matrix protocol when we choose this i know i will not grow rappler as fast as the ones that we compete against. But i also can assure our readers that they will be safe that they wont be tracked and that they conform communities of action. We have dozens of exiled journalists in the room today. You have suffered a lot for your journalism but have been able to stay in your country and continue to as a journalist there. What would you say to journalists here who have had to leave their homes who sometimes if they made the right decision and are trying to remake lives and careers in new countries . This is a tough question. You know, i think in the book i wrote about this because there a period of time right before the lockdown. In february 2020 when the risks were very, very high. I make a joke that, you know, you never open an email from a small cluny on a holiday because thats when she a lot of her work and then, you know, on one Christmas Eve<\/a> she sends me an email i thought she was wishing merry christmas. It told me that i could go to jail for more than 100 years. You know. So anyway. So i guess for the parents of evan, there are these who moments were i think mikael you know he he knows you just have to walk through this and you in the book i talk about quantify being the worst that could happen and planning for it whatever the worst thing is and in my case it was a shutdown and it was violence. If i work flow that backward. And im ready for it, then i can move forward. Every person has a different risk unless. This has a different risk factor. And and god forbid, you know, philippines is not russia or i shouldnt do things like thats not politically correct. Let me not go there. There are countries where it is much, much harder. In my case, i felt could stay and i made the call, even though at one point, especially during the pandemic lockdown, i thought i was being really foolish. Its your its your capacity to handle your fear and hope you make the right choice. If you are out and youve made that choice, make the most it right. Pull come together. You are powerful and you will know your country than anyone else. Do you have recommendations . Host countries or organizations like the National Press<\/a> club where we can help exile journalists better . I mean, theyre in the room and i think youre going to have youre going to a discussion on how to do this. This is probably kathy and some of the other folks here can do more. But i will say the u. S. Is slightly in terms of visas. Canada has already given, you know, visas to journalists who are looking for looking sanctuary. This then becomes own like you have to choose. Where do you have Networks People<\/a> who have gone through this . Where im looking in the back, you know, you can actually probably see more. I am both an american and a filipino citizen and i felt the reason ive stayed is because leaving number, i run a company of about 100 people, right . Its like an ultimate betrayal of the journalists who are working so hard to do our jobs. This is actually whats most inspiring. Number two, because of because of i am and who i am with the baton was passed to me as the head of the News Organization<\/a>. If i left, we give up ground for the entire industry. So i what i is i kind of made myself okay with going to jail. I have amal clooney and george clooney. I, i kid. But, you know, i, i figure i hope that i if that happens, that i could also get you. How do you retain . Because i feel theres so much on your shoulders and you you represent so many different people and organizations. How do you stay so positive . Because this is its not end yet. Right. It is. In our literally i feel like that and you know, my team if youre talking to rappler right now, i mean, being in the u. S. Right now, im working at night because. Were literally pivoting the entire right now. It is a time of creation and that is slightly i mean, thats exciting. Thats why we did a start up called rappler. Every News Organization<\/a> should think that i think right and not to to tell you i think we need to look at what is exciting this time period we can it. I havent given up. Thats one the other is that like attracts like i work so many inspiring people many of you in this room who pay it forward. I will pay it forward. It is you know the general society of strangers have helped us. I will do the same as. We walk forward if you do your area of influence its i feel thats the mesh that go forward. Right we have until the end of 2024. I figured i was just going to sprint until the end of 2024. Hopefully democracy survives. This is would. And if it doesnt, then ill go to sleep sleep. Okay. Before i ask the final question, let me take a moment to thank the organizers of todays events headliners, quoting leaders done online on the jay and laurie russo. Todays headliner events commentator kathy kiley club events coroner Cecily Scott Martin<\/a> Club Membership<\/a> kate holster Club Executive<\/a> dda sergiy press freedom consultant bill mccarron and all the staff and maybe people who have helped create this amazing luncheon. We also offer a special words of gratitude for the Missouri School<\/a> journalism, which sponsored maria ressa visit to the National Club<\/a> today through its olive lindgren lecture on press freedom. As you heard mentioned earlier, the university of missouri of journalism will host a discussion later this afternoon here at the National Press<\/a> club in support of journalists. And i guess while it is my honor, present you, maria, with the much coveted National Press<\/a> club mug and. By saying. Clawson, an honorary membership here at the club second come at any time. Thank you. All right for question. You grew up in new. What is your favorite diner food . Oh, my gosh. Blue lynchs. I bagels and lox. Also, i. Oh, yeah. I had a jewish boyfriend that was a well, thank you very much. Thank thank you. And good luck","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia801202.us.archive.org\/25\/items\/CSPAN3_20231227_140300_Maria_Ressa_How_to_Stand_Up_to_a_Dictator\/CSPAN3_20231227_140300_Maria_Ressa_How_to_Stand_Up_to_a_Dictator.thumbs\/CSPAN3_20231227_140300_Maria_Ressa_How_to_Stand_Up_to_a_Dictator_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240707T12:35:10+00:00"}

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