‘Social media owners are the biggest tyranny’

Last Updated on May 29, 2024 8:43 am

The ‘tech bros’ or technology owners especially social media giants like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are the biggest tyranny. Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa made this comment. Maria Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for her work on media freedom.

The American-Filipino journalist has spent years fighting the charges against former Philippine dictator Rodrigo Duterte. Still, compared to Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, “Duterte is a very small dictator,” according to Maria Ressa.

Speaking at the Hey Literary Festival in Powys, Ressa said Zuckerberg and Musk have proved that we all, regardless of culture, language or geography, have more in common than we differ, because we are all being treated the same.

According to Resa, social media can change the way we feel. And it changes the way we see and work.

Conversations about online identity politics have created similar examples of polarization around the world, Ressa said. These debates we think of as our free will, but they are not, and they also have limitations.

Ressa also said that there was rich vs. poor in the Philippines, racial issues in the US, ‘Black Lives Matter’, Russia’s bombing propaganda on both sides – these were open blasts aimed at convincing people and creating chaos.

At the same time, Maria Ressa also advised to prevent children from using social media until they are old enough (unless they have gained independence). According to him it is addictive.