Maria Ressa, Nobel laureate and CEO of Filipino news outlet Rappler, believes South Africa's traditional media is strong, but that won't last, posing an ongoing threat to democracy.

'Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without these three, we don't have a shared reality. We cannot begin to solve any problems, and we cannot have democracy," said Maria Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, at a discussion at Wits University last week on big tech, authoritarianism, and the reality of global disinformation.

The CEO and co-founder of Filipino news outlet Rappler argued that South Africa's 29 May elections were successful, in part, due to the country's relatively low social media penetration rate limiting the spread of disinformation.

When Daily Maverick followed up with Ressa at the 14th Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture in Cape Town on 23 November, she said: "Technology, once seen as a great equaliser, is now a weapon wielded against the very foundations of democracy."

Thandi Smith, head of programmes at Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), explained the threat further: "One of the biggest threats of disinformation is the impact it has on the ability to make informed decisions, decisions about your community and the world around you."

Big tech's leverage

While Ressa's discussion at Wits was...