“Weaponizing the Internet”

By: Maria Ressa

We know that social media is a widely used form of media that enable a lot of people to engage in
different issues, news, and stories regarding the world. One of the advantages of engaging in social media is we
can be updated about the news. Especially to the political issues which is mostly involved in propaganda
campaign administered by the politicians that was mentioned in the article. One of the best examples of these is
a article by Maria Ressa titled as “Propaganda War: Weaponizing the Internet”.

According to the article “Propaganda War: Weaponizing the Internet” by Maria Ressa, she described the
internet as a deadly weapon. Nowadays, media is a weapon to do unappropriate things like creating a lot of fake
accounts, spreading fake news, and etc. Many people hesitated why President Rodrigo Duterte became the
president of our country. He’s one of the best influencer but it leads to many accusations and allegations. The
example given on the article was a photo posted by Peter Tiu Lavina, Duterte’s campaign spokesman, who
attacked critics of the government’s “war on drugs” with his statement about a 9-years old girl who was
raped and murdered. The photo was actually taken on Brazil, not here in our country. Another example of these
arguments is entitled as “ Man with bomb nabbed at Davao Checkpoint”. It is said that the man was the reason
behind the bombing in Davao. This is disinformation because it led readers to think the man with the bomb was
captured that day, September 3, when President Duterte declared a state of lawlessness in the aftermath of the
bombing. It’s so distressing that social media is being used as a weapon and a way of telling rumors or lies
rather spreading reliable and true news and information.

Is there anything we can do to stop or punish that kind of false information? We users should be
responsible enough to know the truth and prevent lies. Nowadays, we are in modern world of communications
and sharing information where we need to be responsible for all of our actions. That’s why we have a rule
etiquette that we need to consider and follow it to be a responsible user of media. The information that we
gathered must lead people to find the truth and to the truth. We can be a good netizens and good source of
information if we tell the truth and all of the people deserve to know what is real and true.

Colin Jude M. Lucero

STEM 123

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