In this episode of Democracy in Question, Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa joins Shalini Randeria to examine how digital platforms have transformed journalism and accelerated democratic decline. 

Drawing on her experience confronting Rodrigo Duterte’s government in the Philippines, Ressa explains how disinformation erodes facts, trust and shared reality, allowing online attacks to become real-world repression. She discusses the dangers posed by profit-driven algorithms and rapidly expanding AI systems, as well as the concentration of technological power in a handful of companies and countries. Ressa concludes with a call for regulation, collective action and public-interest technology that supports democratic communities without manipulating them.