NOBEL Peace Prize laureate and Rappler co-founder, Maria Ressa, has expressed concerns over the growing toxicity of social media debates ahead of the U.S. elections.
She said the situation had been worse than what was experienced in the Philippines.
Speaking at the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference in London, Ressa described the findings from a Rappler review titled “2024 study on the US information ecosystem” as scary.
She said the U.S. information ecosystem had been “way worse than anything we have lived through in the Philippines”.
Ressa’s warnings come against the backdrop of a broader conversation about the global crisis of public trust, especially in the U.S., where the information ecosystem has become increasingly fractured.
Rappler’s study revealed how misinformation, disinformation, and political tribalism have fundamentally reshaped how Americans consume and trust information. According to the study, social media platforms, initially hailed for democratising access to information, have instead evolved into “amplifiers of hate and division.”
The study, which analysed three years of social and traditional media coverage of the most divisive issues in American society, shows that America faces huge challenge ahead of the November elections.
It further highlighted how the algorithms driving these platforms prioritise sensational content that deepens societal divides, making it difficult for voters to access reliable, fact-based information.
It noted that politicians and foreign actors had also exploited these platforms, turning them into powerful tools of disinformation and geopolitical manipulation.
While emphasising the alarming levels of polarisation and manipulation permeating the U.S. information ecosystem, Ressa explained how these dynamics have been worsened by the influence of social media platforms.
She also noted the dangers posed by disinformation and manipulation on social media platforms, pointing out that six out of ten Americans get their information from social media, which she referred to as “the human sewer.”
“Six out of 10 Americans get their information from the human sewer – that is social media. How are we going to have a public information ecosystem that isn’t motivated by surveillance for profit? That isn’t insidiously manipulating us? That isn’t taking tools of advertising and putting them in the hands of geopolitical powers? In two weeks, the entire world is going to go check to see what the state of the world will be as a result.”
Ressa called for the development of alternative solutions and advocated for the creation of “deliberative technologies,” new digital tools designed to facilitate healthy public discourse.
These tools, Ressa said, could be a game-changer in the fight against disinformation and polarisation, creating spaces where “real people to have real conversations, without being manipulated for profit.”
The ICIR reports that Americans head to the poll on November 5, 2024, to elect their next president.
The two leading contenders – incumbent vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, and the Republican flag-bearer, Donald Trump, are set to face off in what is anticipated to be one of the most factious elections in U.S. history.
Harris became the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden stepped down days after testing positive for COVID-19.
Trump, who previously served as president from 2017 to 2021, has escaped two assassination attempts since he began his campaign.
Harris and Trump have been launching a series of verbal onslaughts at each other since the beginning of the electioneering.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M