Home Catholic Church & Asia Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa: Rebuilding truth and trust is global imperative

Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa: Rebuilding truth and trust is global imperative

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa urged global action to combat disinformation and rebuild trust during her address at the Jubilee of the World of Communications. 

Speaking to participants gathered at the Vatican last week, she called for urgent efforts to address the harm caused by social media and its role in eroding democratic institutions.

“Big Tech transformed social media from a tool of connection into a weapon of mass behavioral engineering,” said Ressa, the co-founder and CEO of Rappler. 

Filipino and American journalist Nobel Peace Prize recipient and CEO of Rappler Maria Angelita Ressa, speaks during the Jubilee of the World Communications at Paul-VI hall in the Vatican on January 25, 2025. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)


“Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without these three, we have no shared reality,” she added. 

Ressa warned about the deliberate design of social media platforms that amplify division and manipulate emotions for profit. 

“It monetizes our outrage and hate; amplifies our divisions; and systematically erodes our capacity for nuanced thinking, our capacity for empathy,” she said, referencing a study that showed lies spread six times faster than truth on social media.

She described the broader impact of these platforms, noting, “What happens on social media doesn’t stay on social media.” 

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She linked online manipulation to real-world violence, citing examples from Myanmar, Ukraine, and other conflict zones. “Online violence is real-world violence,” she said.

Ressa emphasized the importance of collaboration, urging people to “build and strengthen trust now to close the fracture lines of society that information operations will try to pound open, pitting us against each other.”

 She called for speaking truth with moral clarity, reminding the audience that “silence in the face of injustice is complicity” and urging them to demand transparency and accountability from governments, Big Tech, and media. 

Highlighting the need to protect the most vulnerable, she stressed the importance of supporting journalists, human rights defenders, and marginalized communities, saying, “Our collective vigilance can prevent the normalization of hate.” 

She encouraged individuals to recognize their power, saying, “Building peace is not reserved for heroes; it’s the collective work of people who refuse to accept and live lies.”

Ressa highlighted the role of faith and ethical principles in addressing the crisis, emphasizing the need to uphold values like the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

She described this as a guiding principle in her own life, helping define courage in challenging times.

She criticized the unchecked power of Big Tech, saying, “The men who control this transformative technology wield god-like power, but they are not God.” 

Ressa described the need for accountability and reminded the audience of their responsibility to act against injustice.

Concluding her speech, Ressa said that even at the worst of times, “hope is not passive; it’s active, relentless, and strategic.”

Quoting T.S. Eliot, she said, “In this present moment of our shared past, we have a choice—and it will create our future as much as change how we look at our past.”

She encouraged the audience to consider the transformative power of working together, emphasizing that individual choices and collective action could prevent further harm, address critical challenges, and contribute to healing the world.

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