GZERO VIDEO: Social media platforms allow hateful lies to spread, says Maria Ressa

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NEW YORK (GZERO MEDIA) - Facebook and other social media platforms allow lies laced with anger and hate to spread faster and further than facts, says Maria Ressa, one of the Philippines' most prominent journalists.

"You cannot have integrity of market, you cannot have integrity of elections if you make facts debatable," she said.

In this interview with American foreign policy expert Ian Bremmer, Ms Ressa, the Rappler editor and well known Duterte critic, issued strong warnings about social media companies - particularly Facebook - for their inability or unwillingness to control hate speech online.

Ms Ressa recently made headlines after she was found guilty of cyber-libel on June 15, and now faces a jail term of up to six years, a verdict critics have criticised to be a heavy blow to a free press.

Likening social media to a propaganda machine, she described how Facebook was used as a tool to kindle online violence towards her.

"It started in 2016, and it started with the threats. Then I became every animal you can think of..It used gender, my facial features, my skin colour...it's meant to incite hate," she said.

Online platforms have also led to a blurring on lines between reality and fiction, while cheap armies on social media have rolled democracy back around the world, said the TIME Magazine's 2018 Person of the Year.

This GZERO media video is being shown here as part of a media partnership agreement with The Straits Times.

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