07 ISSUE I
DECEMBER 2024
DECEMBER 2024
living In a polluted information ecosystem
In developing countries, democracy depends on balancing the state's duty to the press and the press's duty to the public.
By Soumya Karwa
President Rodrigo Duterte, in power in the Philippines between 2016 and 2022, favored comparisons to the fictional vigilante cop “Dirty Harry,” made famous by actor Clint Eastwood in the 1970s and 1980s. Dirty Harry employed violent and illegal methods, including extrajudicial violence and killings, to apprehend criminals in San Francisco on the US West Coast. One of Duterte’s signature policies was a “War on Drugs.” The International Criminal Court estimated that between 12,000 and 13,000 people had been killed by police death squads during Duterte’s time in office. They were mostly the urban poor. In press conferences, Duterte often delegitimized media critical of his policies, specifically Rappler, claiming they spread “fake news” and were “pregnant with falsities.”
Ramona Diaz’s documentary “A Thousand Cuts” follows journalist Maria Ressa and her news organization, Rappler, as they face legal and political harassment from Duterte’s administration. Rappler, an independent media house founded in 2012, is based in the capital of the Philippines, Manilla.
Ressa was named TIME Magazine Person of the Year in 2018. She is the film’s main character. Operating alongside Ressa is Pia Ranada, a senior reporter at Rappler who has been covering Duterte since he was the Mayor of Davao, the third-largest city in the country. The government is represented by Duterte and two of his closest allies: Ronald dela Rosa, Chief of Police, who oversaw Duterte’s infamous anti-drug campaign, and the singer and social media influencer Mocha Uson. She doubles as Duterte’s Assistant Secretary in the Presidential Communications Office. When the film was being made, Uson and Dela Rosa ran to serve in the country’s senate.
Udon, whose blog had 5 million followers, would amplify these attacks by accusing Rapper of being “anti-national” and acting for “foreign interests.” At times, her followers went to the Rappler officers to harass its journalists. Ressa and Rappler pushed back by exposing the links between Duterte and bots and trolls or appealing to the constitution, which guarantees a free press.
In developing countries, democracy relies on a delicate balance between the state's responsibility to the press and the press's responsibility to the public. If the state holds too much power, it can threaten democracy itself. At the same time, if the press is given unchecked freedom, it could undermine the state and society’s ability to pursue its policy agenda. In today’s increasingly polarized world, public figures and those with media platforms must present facts objectively to foster a peaceful and open-minded public discourse, especially in the online sphere. Ideally, in an era where anyone can present their opinions as facts, it assumes that audiences take responsibility for conducting their own research before forming opinions. However, this ideal assumes our brains can adapt to technological changes as quickly as the advancements evolve—something that is far from the case.
Social Media platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram have a black-box algorithm that controls the information users see. Users assume that what pops up on their timeline results from an autonomous process or that they know what everyone else is also seeing. However, feeds are catered to each user’s interests, often reaffirming existing beliefs and creating echo chambers. Users remain isolated from differing viewpoints and become increasingly intolerant of perspectives that do not agree with their own. Algorithms designed to maximize engagement make it easy for private corporations (and states) to use social media platforms to manipulate user behavior. By controlling the content prioritized in each personalized feed, they can subtly push certain narratives while users remain unaware of the influence being exerted on them. The combination of echo chambers and engagement-driven algorithms becomes a vicious cycle of misinformation and intolerance, which increases division and polarization and the eventual risk of violence.
At multiple points in the documentary, Ressa discusses the influence of Duterte’s “disinformation networks.” In one case, Rappler finds one account that spreads fake news. It only has 25 followers, and all the followers follow each other. This one account was part of a network of 26 fake news accounts that could influence up to three million accounts. Ressa termed it the “nervous system spreading lies.” Udon’s site is in an organic relationship with these fake news accounts. When confronted, Udon would plead innocence; she made an “honest mistake,” and her platform is not a “news platform,” she would claim. Her followers didn’t think about it this way. For them, she represented the government, which, like elsewhere, commanded legitimacy to citizens and was, by default, reporting facts. As Ressa says: “Technology made facts disputable, eroded truth, and crippled trust.”
As a viewer, it is easy to sit in judgment of Duterte’s supporters when they criticize Rapper for being a foreign agent or not acting in the national interest. I know, however, as an Indian, that citizens of formerly colonized countries tend to be wary of any foreign opinion (or foreign-driven domestic opinion) about our countries, governments, and democracies. When I read articles in Western media that are critical of the Indian government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is tough for me to believe them outright. Not because I doubt their credibility but because I am wary that the narrative they create around the facts they find might serve the best interests of their own countries and not mine. That journalism is a weapon in soft power wars. This nationalistic feeling superseded any other feelings I had– and that was before I entered Instagram’s echo chamber. Am I being manipulated by pro-government Indian media or by anti-government foreign press? Or is it something else? Is this what it feels like to be in a polluted information ecosystem–like that of the Philippines portrayed in “A Thousand Cuts”– not knowing what to believe?
Soumya Karwa is completing an MFA in Design and Technology program at Parsons School of Design at The New School.