Nobel Peace Prize Winner Calls Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg World's 'Largest Dictators'
It's not Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un or even Vladimir Putin who is the biggest dictator in today's society, but top tech executives. This is according to a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Maria Ressa spoke at the 2024 Hay Festival in Powys, Wales, over the weekend, where she discussed the importance of press freedom and the effects of social media misinformation.
The Filipino-American journalist, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, said Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are today's "largest dictators."
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Ressa has written a book on "How to Stand Up to a Dictator" and bravely fought against the iron-fisted regime of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whose administration tried to send her to jail. Despite her struggles against the ex-leader who confessed to extrajudicial killings, she believes Duterte is nothing compared to the "tech bros."
"[Duterte] is a far smaller dictator compared to Mark Zuckerberg, and now let me throw in Elon Musk," Ressa said to her audience at the event, per The Guardian.
According to the 2018 Time Person of the Year, tech CEOs have "proven that we all, regardless of culture, language, or geography, have far more in common than we have differences because we're all being manipulated the same way."
Ressa highlighted how social media platforms have the power to change the way users perceive the world and in turn, affect how people act and interact.
She added that tech companies are "inciting polarisation, inciting fear and anger and hatred," and this changes people and society.
The Nobel Prize laureate suggested that aside from removing section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act -- providing limited federal immunity to online platforms over content posted by its users -- parents should not allow their children to access social media.
"If you have kids, don't let them on [social media] until they're old enough," the 60-year-old author added.
In 2020, the CEO of the Philippine news agency Rappler was found guilty of cyber libel over an article published on the news website. Many saw this as an effort to silence the criticism of the Duterte government.
In 2023, she was acquitted of her tax evasion cases, while her cyber libel conviction remains under appeal.
