A journalist who's been honored for advocating press freedom ironically pushed for more censorship and less freedom of speech on social media, during multiple television appearances this week.
Maria Ressa, CEO of Filipino news outlet Rappler, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. She was honored for being a "fearless defender of freedom of expression" and exposing outgoing Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's "abuse of power, use of violence and increasing authoritarianism," the award's website states.
However, the journalist seemed to argue that more press freedom meant less free speech for everyone else while on CNN Wednesday morning.
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Warning about social media's intrusive effects on our lives, Ressa connected the addictive nature of these platforms to the spread of disinformation. She argued that Facebook and Twitter use "information warfare" that in turn dismantles journalism.
"Social media, the tools of gathering data on each of us, now has insidiously manipulated us. It is at a point where journalism becomes nearly impossible because the distribution system actually rewards lies," Ressa argued.
She told CNN that journalists "bear the brunt" of these negative effects. "[D]on, I see the attacks [on you]," she said to co-anchor Don Lemon.
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Lemon has called on social media companies to regulate user's posts and opinions in the past.
But his co-host Poppy Harlow asked if the solution to misinformation was allowing more freedom of speech, referencing Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis' argument in a landmark 1927 court case.
Ressa argued that philosophy was out-of-date. "When did he say that?" she asked.
"That doesn't work today," she said. "Not in the age of exponential lies."
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The journalist suggested democratic governments needed to step in and put regulations on social media companies to safeguard democracy.
Ressa was also on "CBS This Morning" Monday and on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Tuesday night making a similar argument.
There has been a renewed push by some journalists and Democrats for more censorship and regulation of social media companies, after new Twitter CEO Elon Musk restored previously banned accounts and put an end to the COVID-19 misinformation policy.
That policy enacted in March of 2020, removed posts about COVID-19 that contradicted "authoritative sources."
Over the last two years, 11,000 accounts have been suspended due to the policy, Fox Business reported.
Musk has called himself a "free speech absolutist," calling the preservation of the First Amendment "a battle for the future of civilization."
"If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead," he wrote in a tweet on Monday.
During that same day's White House press briefing, Reuters reporter Andrea Shalal asked press secretary Karine Jean Pierre how the Biden administration was keeping "track" of Twitter after Musk's takeover, warning the platform could turn into a "vector of misinformation."
