Maria Ressa delivers the Commencement Address | Harvard Commencement 2024

Summary

The speaker, addressing Harvard's class of 2024, reflects on the challenges of today's world, emphasizing the impact of technology on democracy, truth, and societal division. Sharing personal experiences from the Philippines, they highlight how social media has fueled misinformation, violence, and authoritarianism. Despite facing threats and imprisonment for journalistic work, the speaker encourages graduates to fight for truth, integrity, and democracy. They advocate for choosing one’s best self, turning crises into opportunities, and embracing vulnerability. The speech urges collective action to build a more compassionate, equal, and sustainable world, warning that the fight for facts and integrity is a battle that must be waged together.

Takeaways

• 🎓 The speaker is addressing the class of 2024 at Harvard, acknowledging their challenges during the pandemic and their resilience.
• 🌍 The world has gotten worse since 2021, with rising dystopian challenges and the rapid impact of technology.
• 💻 Technology, especially social media, has accelerated conflicts, violence, and polarization globally, with examples like the Capitol Hill violence and Russian disinformation in 2016.
• 📱 The Philippines was used as a testing ground for social media platforms, and the speaker highlights the damage caused by power, money, and disinformation.
• 🛑 The speaker personally experienced severe online attacks, hate messages, and even arrest in the Philippines for exposing the truth and holding power accountable.
• 🔍 Without facts, there is no truth, trust, or democracy—an essential theme in the fight against disinformation and the integrity of information.
• 🔥 The speaker warns of an ongoing global erosion of democracy, with many nations now under autocratic rule and tech companies exacerbating the issue.
• ⚖️ There is a pressing need for justice and accountability, as powerful entities operate with impunity, undermining democracy and institutions worldwide.
• 🤝 The speaker emphasizes three core principles: choose your best self, turn crisis into opportunity, and be vulnerable to foster meaningful change and rebuild trust.
• 🛡️ The battle for democracy and integrity is ongoing, and each individual, especially the class of 2024, must stand together to shape a more compassionate and just world.

Q & A

What is the speaker's main message to the class of 2024?

The speaker encourages the class of 2024 to face challenges head-on, emphasizing the importance of standing up for democracy, choosing their best selves, turning crises into opportunities, and being vulnerable to foster trust and collaboration.

Why does the speaker compare the current world to a dystopian science fiction setting?

The speaker describes the world as dystopian due to the rapid and destabilizing changes brought on by technology, social media, and global crises, leading to disinformation, violence, and a breakdown of trust and democracy.

How did the pandemic impact the class of 2024 according to the speaker?

The pandemic disrupted the class of 2024's high school graduation and their first year of university, forcing them into lockdowns, mask-wearing, and online learning, while highlighting many existential global issues.

What role does the speaker believe technology plays in today’s societal issues?

The speaker argues that technology, particularly social media, has accelerated conflict, division, and disinformation, often being manipulated for power and profit, which undermines public discourse, democracy, and trust.

What personal experiences does the speaker share to illustrate the dangers of disinformation?

The speaker recounts being a target of online attacks and disinformation, facing arrest, threats, and false accusations in the Philippines for reporting the truth, showing how disinformation can be weaponized to silence journalists and destroy trust.

How does the speaker connect events in the Philippines to global issues?

The speaker draws parallels between the disinformation campaigns in the Philippines and those used in countries like the United States, where similar tactics have been employed, such as during the 2016 U.S. election and the Capitol Hill riots.

What are the three lessons the speaker wants the graduates to take away?

The speaker advises the graduates to (1) choose their best selves by staying true to their values, (2) turn crises into opportunities, and (3) embrace vulnerability to build stronger connections and solutions.

Why does the speaker believe social media has harmed democracy?

The speaker argues that social media's design amplifies fear, anger, and disinformation, creating divisions and undermining trust in facts and democratic institutions, which has led to the erosion of democracy globally.

What solutions does the speaker propose to address the challenges posed by technology?

The speaker suggests reforming laws, such as the U.S. Communications Decency Act (Section 230), holding tech companies accountable, and fostering compassion and trust through vulnerability and collaboration.

Why does the speaker highlight the importance of vulnerability?

The speaker believes that vulnerability is key to restoring trust, building meaningful relationships, and creating solutions in a polarized world, as it allows people to lower their defenses and connect on a deeper level.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Congratulating the Resilient Graduates

The speaker thanks Harvard President Garber and former President Gay for the opportunity to speak. They congratulate the Class of 2024, recognizing their resilience amidst global turmoil, including the pandemic and online learning challenges. The speech highlights the pervasive influence of technology on societal issues, such as the spread of misinformation and violence, using examples from the Philippines as a testing ground for social media manipulation. The speaker reflects on the impact of disinformation, personal attacks, and the need for journalists to defend truth in an age of chaos.

05:01

🚨 The Fight Against Disinformation

The speaker details the global disinformation campaigns that target journalists, portraying them as criminals. In the Philippines, this led to legal harassment, with the speaker facing multiple arrests and charges simply for reporting the truth. Despite these challenges, they emphasize the importance of standing up for facts and accountability, even when facing severe consequences. The speaker encourages graduates to recognize their own values and to be prepared for tests that will define their character in a polarized world.

10:05

⚠️ The Battle for Truth and Trust

This section underscores the dangers of a corrupted information ecosystem fueled by social media and AI, where lies spread faster than facts, eroding trust and democracy. The speaker highlights the global impact of disinformation, from genocide in Myanmar to conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. They call attention to the deterioration of the global democratic order and the rise of autocrats exploiting technological vulnerabilities. The speaker urges future leaders to fight for democracy and rebuild trust, stressing the critical role of truth in society.

15:06

🌍 Turning Crisis into Opportunity

The speaker discusses how their organization, Rappler, adapted to ongoing crises by preparing for worst-case scenarios. They emphasize resilience and the power of choosing to respond constructively to adversity. They reflect on the increasing challenges posed by technology, including deep fakes and reduced safety measures on social media platforms, which complicate the fight against misinformation. The need for reform, particularly in regulating tech companies, is highlighted as crucial for protecting democratic processes.

20:09

💪 Embrace Vulnerability and Collective Action

The speaker closes by advocating for vulnerability as a strength that fosters trust and resilience. They stress the importance of choosing one’s best self, turning crises into opportunities, and working together to create a more compassionate, equal, and sustainable world. The speech concludes with a call to action for the graduates to engage in the ongoing battle for truth, integrity, and democracy, emphasizing that collective effort is necessary to build a better future.

Keywords

💡Dystopian Science Fiction World

This term describes a world where everything has drastically worsened, resembling the bleak and oppressive scenarios commonly depicted in science fiction literature. The speaker uses this phrase to emphasize the severity of the global situation since 2021, including the rapid changes and crises faced by society. It sets the tone for the challenges the class of 2024 has faced and will continue to face, highlighting their resilience in adapting to a chaotic and unpredictable world.

💡Information Warfare

Information warfare refers to the strategic use of misinformation and disinformation to manipulate public opinion and sow discord. The speaker discusses how social media platforms have been exploited by power and money to spread false information, leading to societal unrest and violence. This concept is crucial to understanding the speech's message about the dangers of unchecked technological power and its impact on democracy and social stability.

💡Social Media's Petri Dish

The phrase 'Social Media's Petri Dish' is used metaphorically to describe the Philippines as an experimental ground for testing the effects of social media manipulation. The speaker explains how Filipinos spent the most time online globally and became a target for these platforms' designs. This concept underscores the larger theme of how unchecked technological advancements can have dire real-world consequences, serving as a warning to the global community.

💡Weaponization of the Law

This term describes the use of legal systems to target and silence dissent, often by those in power. The speaker recounts their own experience of being arrested multiple times for simply doing their job as a journalist. This concept illustrates the broader theme of authoritarianism and the suppression of free speech, emphasizing the need to defend democratic values and institutions against such abuses.

💡Chilling Effect

The chilling effect refers to the discouragement of the legitimate exercise of legal rights due to fear of legal sanctions or other repercussions. In the speech, the speaker mentions how many people are choosing to stay silent because of the consequences of speaking out. This concept is central to the speech's call for courage and resilience in the face of fear and oppression, particularly in defending truth and justice.

💡Enshittification of the Internet

This colloquial term describes the degradation of the internet's quality and integrity, where valuable information is overshadowed by propaganda and misinformation. The speaker uses this term to critique how the internet has become inundated with low-quality content and manipulative tactics, exacerbating societal divisions and eroding trust in information sources. It is a key concept for understanding the current challenges in maintaining a healthy information ecosystem.

💡Choose Your Best Self

This phrase is a call to act with integrity and stay true to one's values, despite external pressures and challenges. The speaker urges the graduates to remain focused on their goals and uphold their principles, highlighting the importance of self-awareness and ethical decision-making. It relates to the broader theme of individual responsibility in contributing to a more just and compassionate world.

💡Turn Crisis into Opportunity

This concept encourages finding positive outcomes and growth opportunities in the midst of adversity. The speaker uses this phrase to inspire the graduates to embrace the challenges they face and use them as a catalyst for positive change. It underscores the theme of resilience and proactive problem-solving in overcoming the complex issues facing the world today.

💡Be Vulnerable

The speaker advocates for vulnerability as a strength, promoting openness and trust in human interactions. This concept challenges the perception that vulnerability is a weakness and instead frames it as a necessary condition for building strong, authentic relationships. It is tied to the speech's call for a more compassionate and connected society, where individuals can collaborate effectively to solve global challenges.

💡Crisis of Faith

A 'crisis of faith' refers to a profound doubt in fundamental beliefs and values, in this context, the belief in the inherent goodness of humanity. The speaker discusses how the current incentive structures of technology challenge this belief by rewarding negative behavior. This concept highlights the need to restore trust and compassion in society, aligning with the broader theme of rebuilding integrity and shared values in the face of divisive forces.

Highlights

The speaker addresses the Harvard faculty, friends, and family, congratulating the graduates of the class of 2024 for their resilience and hard work despite the pandemic.

A reflection on how the world has worsened since 2021, with rapid societal changes driven by crises, requiring the class of 2024 to turn crisis into opportunity.

The speaker discusses the impact of the pandemic on the class of 2024, including a lack of high school graduation ceremonies and a first year in lockdown.

Technology, particularly social media, is highlighted as an accelerant to conflict and polarization, which undermined slow, civilized discourse.

The Philippines is described as a testing ground for social media platforms, with American tech companies exploiting its citizens for profit and power.

The speaker ties the information warfare in the Philippines to larger global events, including Russian disinformation during the 2016 US election and the January 6 Capitol attack.

Online harassment and disinformation campaigns are shared from a personal perspective, where the speaker faced intense social media attacks and legal weaponization for speaking out.

The speaker underscores the necessity of fighting for facts and truth to restore trust, pointing out how disinformation and technology are being used to manipulate and polarize societies.

The concept of 'choosing your best self' is introduced as essential for navigating a world full of ethical challenges, power struggles, and the rationalization of bad behavior.

A focus on the damage caused by social media and the spread of disinformation globally, particularly in regions like Myanmar and Ukraine, where social media has fueled real-world violence.

The battle for democracy is framed as one where future leaders, including the Harvard graduates, must actively participate to prevent further destruction of democratic institutions.

The need to turn crisis into opportunity is emphasized, using the speaker’s experience with Rappler to showcase how organizations can survive and adapt even in the worst scenarios.

Deep fakes, AI, and online bots are discussed as upcoming technological threats that will make it harder to discern reality and manipulate public opinion.

The speaker calls for reforms to Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, advocating for better regulation of tech companies to stop the spread of disinformation and chaos.

A call to action for the Harvard graduates to be vulnerable, lower their defenses, and take on leadership roles to help rebuild trust and create a more compassionate, equal, and sustainable world.

Transcripts

- Thank you, President Garber

and thank you, former President Gay

who called me last year to extend this offer.

(audience applauding)

It's an incredible honor

to address the distinguished Harvard faculty,

the mysterious Harvard Corporation,

and the loving friends and family

who have traveled far and close to be here with you today.

But wait, most of all, despite everything,

because you worked really hard,

I am so thrilled to congratulate

the battle-tested graduates of the class of 2024.

Thank you.

(audience applauding)

This was a harder speech to write than the Nobel lecture,

you know, because since 2021,

the world has gotten so much worse.

We live in a dystopian science fiction world

where everything can change in the blink of an eye

when you have been forced

to turn crisis into opportunity.

No one knows this better than the class of 2024.

A pandemic meant no high school graduation.

Your first year here in lockdown, wearing masks,

afraid of contact,

you laid out all of the problems,

the existential problems we face today.

We were pushed online in the virtual world

and that made things worse

because the accelerant to conflict

and violence to us against them,

to wars that have killed tens of thousands

sparking historic campus protests,

that accelerant is technology.

It turned what once used

to be our civilized Harvard thinking slow public discussions

into what's become a gladiator's battle to the death.

I know this firsthand.

The Philippines, America's former colony,

110 million people was social media's Petri dish.

For a crucial six years,

Filipinos spent the most time online

and on social media globally,

and we became the testing ground

for these American tech companies.

Their platform's designs exploited by power and money

in information warfare.

It became worse when TikTok joined the fray.

If the tactics worked on us,

it was deployed for you.

That's what happened in 2016 when 126 million Americans

were targeted by Russian disinformation,

and on January 6th in the violence on Capitol Hill,

when Silicon Valley sins came home to roost.

Because I accepted your invitation to be here today,

I was attacked online

and called antisemitic by power and money

because they want power and money.

While the other side was already attacking me

because I had been on stage with Hillary Clinton.

Hard to win, right?

But I'd already survived information operations

from my own government.

Free speech used to pound you to silence,

90 hate messages per hour in 2016.

That was eight years ago,

fed me death threats for breakfast.

They attacked the way I looked, the way I sound,

they dehumanized me.

But, you know, the funniest thing,

because when you're the target, you just have to laugh,

is that I was supposedly both CIA and communist.

None of these were true.

But the end goal, please know this, is chaos.

Break down trust.

If you don't have the right information, you can't act.

That's partly the reason why journalists

are on the front lines.

The Meta narrative,

disinformation network seeded against us,

and this is globally, was journalist equals criminal.

Then the bottom up attacks in the Philippines against us

began on social media.

That was followed a year later

by the weaponization of the law.

In 2019, I was arrested twice in about a month,

posted bail eight times.

In about three months,

I thought I was gonna have to do a workflow for arrests.

But before it all ended, I had 10 arrest warrants.

Rappler and I paid more in bail and bonds

than our dictator's wife, Imelda Marcos,

you remember her shoes?

She was convicted for corruption.

But I did nothing wrong except to do my job,

to report the facts, to hold power to account.

For this I had to be okay

with spending the rest of my life in jail.

At one point,

it was more than a century in jail that I faced.

To be here today,

I had to ask for permission

to travel from our Supreme Court.

Anyone else out here on bail?

Just me?

(audience laughing)

It taught me a valuable lesson.

(audience cheering)

I loved the speeches of the students today.

They were incredible because-

(audience applauding)

These times will hopefully teach you

the same lesson I learned.

You don't know who you are until you're tested,

until you fight for what you believe in.

Because that defines who you are.

But you're Harvard, you better get your facts right,

because now you are being tested.

The chilling effect means

that many are choosing to stay silent

because there are consequences to speaking out.

I'm shocked at the fear and anger,

the paranoia splitting open

the major fracture lines of society,

the inability to listen.

What happened to us in the Philippines, it's here.

The campus protests are testing everyone in America.

Protests are healthy.

They shouldn't be violent.

Protests give voice, they shouldn't be silenced.

(audience cheering and applauding)

But you live in complicated, complex times

where I think administrators

and students also faced an unacknowledged danger:

technology, making everything faster, meaner,

more polarized with insidious information operations online

that are dividing generations.

Rappler will be documenting this

and publishing in the next couple of weeks.

Maybe Rappler's experience can help you.

After all, we were in hell and now we're in purgatory,

right?

It can get better.

And here are three ways we've learned, right?

One, choose your best self.

Two, turn crisis into opportunity.

And three, it's wonderful to have heard this several times

from the stage today,

three, be vulnerable.

One, choose your best self,

set and stay focused on your goals,

but know the values you live by.

How important is power?

How much money will make you happy?

Because the only thing you can control in the world is you.

Too often we let ourselves off the hook,

refusing to look at our own difficult or ugly truths.

We rationalize bad behavior.

Remember that character is created in the sum

of all the little choices we make.

If you're not clear about your values,

you may wake up one day

and realize you don't like the person you've become.

So choose your best self.

You're standing on the rubble of the world that was,

recognize it.

I said this in the Nobel lecture,

an atom bomb exploded in our information ecosystem

because social media turned our world upside down,

spreading lies faster than facts,

while amplifying fear and anger,

fueling hatred by design for profit.

Whether it's the AI of social media or Generative AI,

we don't have integrity of information.

We don't have integrity of facts.

And here's three sentences I've said over and over.

Without facts, you can't have truth.

Without truth, you can't have trust.

Without these three, we have no shared reality,

no rule of law, no democracy.

We can't begin to solve existential problems

like climate change.

This outrage economy built on our data,

microtargeting us, transformed our world,

rewarding the worst of humanity.

Online violence is real-world violence.

And as you've pointed out,

people are dying from genocide in Myanmar,

fueled by Facebook according to the UN and Meta itself,

to Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, Armenia, Gaza.

(audience cheering)

The challenge,

the challenge today

is whether our international rules-based order

still works, does it?

The challenge is justice core to our humanity.

Too many powerful people are getting away

with impunity from countries to companies.

And it is dividing us in ways

that are literally destroying us,

destroying democracy, destroying trust.

In Cambridge Commons,

just on the other side of that gate,

there's a marker to American patriot William Dawes,

who like his more famous friend Paul Revere,

rode through here sounding the alarm,

"The British are coming!"

Well, today's equivalent,

an alarm that's made me feel

like Cassandra and Sisyphus combined

because I feel like I've been shouting since 2016

when I watched our institutions crumble quickly

in the Philippines.

And I will say it now, the fascists are coming.

(audience applauding)

In 2023, the Global Democracy Index

fell to its lowest level ever.

Today, 71% of the world lives under autocratic rule.

We are electing illiberal leaders democratically,

and once in power,

these autocrats not only crush institutions

in their countries,

but they form alliances and create Kleptocracy, Inc.

This is your challenge.

It is our challenge.

And Harvard played a role in getting us here.

Seven years ago, Mark Zuckerberg stood at this podium,

finally got his degree

and said that his life's purpose

was to connect the whole world,

"Move fast, break things," Facebook said.

Well, it broke democracy.

In my book, "How to Stand up to a Dictator,"

we were fighting too.

I named two, not just Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines,

he's one man who crushed institutions,

but even more powerful was Mark Zuckerberg

because he, along with tech bros, are controlling the world.

Okay, I will shut up.

Enough, right?

Because let me bring it to you,

the battle to regain trust begins now with all of you.

Harvard says it educates the future leaders of the world.

Well, if you future leaders

don't fight for democracy right now,

there will be little left for you to lead.

(audience applauding)

How do you do this?

And this leads to two, turn crisis into opportunity.

I think you've lived through this.

Accept that crisis is here to stay.

In Rappler, my co-founders,

and one of them is here, Glenda Gloria,

who's a Neiman Fellow from 2018.

(audience cheering)

We learned to embrace the worst scenarios we could imagine.

And this happened during our darkest times.

Then we workflowed what our company would do.

We drilled our team and we prepared for the worst.

We also learned strangely to become punching bags

because we didn't want to tear down our judiciary.

We didn't want to tear down our government.

We knew how potent fear is and we tried to step in,

I mean, at some point you get angry when silence is consent.

But you understand.

Well, I did have good news.

Remember, we put out all of our worst case scenarios.

And the reality we lived through

was so much better than we could have imagined.

Hell, purgatory, right?

It didn't mean we weren't afraid.

We just made a pact among the four co-founders of Rappler

that only one of us could be afraid

at any single time.

We rotated the fear.

But now, for you, for us,

the corruption of our information ecosystem

is about to get worse.

Because of deep fakes,

you can't trust your eyes and ears.

Because of chat bots, you can't trust that the person

you're communicating with is even human.

After Elon Musk bought Twitter,

he fired its trust and safety teams,

Meta and Google also cut some of their staff.

So as half the world goes to the polls,

goes to vote this year,

there will be fewer safety measures in place to protect us.

Now big tech is choking traffic to new sites,

which means you will get less news in your feeds.

How do you know what's real?

How do you know what's fact

when your emotions are what's manipulated?

When our biology is hacked?

Instead of the facts, the enshittification,

enshittification of the internet is in full bloom,

more trash, more propaganda,

more information operations that push our emotional buttons.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo deleted X last year

calling it "a human sewer."

We will have to struggle harder

for agency, for independent thought.

And it's not just the tech companies

that abdicated responsibility for protecting us,

it's also democratic governments like the United States,

tech is the least regulated industry around the world.

That's why the US needs to reform or revoke Section 230

of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

(audience applauding)

We need to stop the impunity.

We also need to acknowledge our crisis of faith.

I've always believed in the goodness of human nature,

but that has never been tested as much as it is today,

when the incentive structure of the technology

that connects us rewards the bad,

eliminates the best of who we can be.

So we need to restore our faith in humanity,

and that starts with compassion.

There's a word that goes beyond empathy in South Africa.

I love this word, ubuntu.

I am because we are.

It's a deeper faith in another person.

It's deeper than stepping in someone else's shoes.

But in order to get there, to get to ubuntu,

we have to lower our shields,

which leads us to three, be vulnerable.

You've accomplished a lot to be here today.

You might think being vulnerable is weak

and it is hard to trust.

But in every relationship, in every negotiation,

in order to move forward

and accomplish anything meaningful,

someone lowers their shield first,

brings down their ego,

the defense mechanism, then others follow.

Let that person be you.

Because when you are vulnerable,

you create the strongest bonds.

You restore trust

and the ability to find creative solutions

to intractable problems.

You become resilient

and enable the most inspiring possibilities.

So choose your best self.

Turn crisis into opportunity.

Be vulnerable.

This is it.

This time matters.

What you do matters.

The war isn't just happening in Gaza, in Sudan, in Ukraine.

It isn't just out there.

It's in your pocket.

Each of us is fighting our own battles for facts,

for integrity,

because the dictator to-be

can zoom in and target each of us.

So let me end by reminding you

we're standing on the rubble of the world that was,

and we, you must have the courage,

the foresight to imagine

and create the world as it should be.

More compassionate, more equal, more sustainable.

Your Harvard education gives you the tools.

Make it a world that is safe from fascists and tyrants.

Alone, no matter how much of a superstar you are,

you will accomplish very little.

We will accomplish very little alone.

This is about what we can do together

to find what binds us together.

Our world on fire needs you.

So class of 2024,

welcome to the battlefield.

Join us.

(audience applauding)