Irony: She once compared Israel to Nazi Germany
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate who last year compared Israel to Nazi Germany due to the “genocide” of the Palestinians is worried fact-seeking journalists are being “hindered” by social media companies.
Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, a “professor of professional practice” at Columbia University, last week told an Indiana University audience that social media users who “don’t want to incite fear, anger and hate” are “handcuffed as well,” the Indiana Daily Student reports.
Ressa (pictured) claimed “false information” is disseminated six times faster than actual facts on social media platforms, and is read by more people.
In addition, mis/disinformation “coupled with hate and anger” can result in violent acts, Ressa said, and the “goal” of disinformation is “to further marginalize communities such as women, ethnic minorities and the LGBTQ+ population.”
Ressa, founder of the news site Rappler (which purports to “fight for facts”), said social media companies should be “accountable” for mis/disinformation posted on their platforms, much like a homeowner would for failing to shovel snow from the sidewalk — which leads to someone slipping and falling.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act currently shields companies from such liability.
Ressa also promoted the use of fact checking via “media organizations” and the social media companies themselves.
But earlier this year, Meta ended its platforms’ fact-checking because the system made “too many mistakes,” “frustrat[ed] users,” and “too often [got] in the way of the free expression.” And this past weekend, one of the oldest media organizations in the country claimed free speech in Nazi Germany was responsible for the Holocaust.
Who does the fact checking in this case? Who should fact check Ressa’s claims that Israel is committing genocide and deliberately targets journalists?
According to her Columbia faculty page, Ressa won her Nobel in 2021 for her “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
She previously taught at Princeton and is author of “How to Stand Up to a Dictator” which details how governments’ “creep towards authoritarianism […] has been aided and abetted by the social media companies.”
MORE: The Wall Street Journal, like The College Fix, gets ‘fact checked’ by Facebook
IMAGE: Global Reporting Centre/X
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