Melissa Sweet and Alison Barrett write:
As we continue our series of articles investigating key elements of a comprehensive national strategy to tackle misinformation and disinformation, it’s worth taking time to hear from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and journalist Professor Maria Ressa.
Rappler, author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator, is much in demand with some media outlets in the United States right now, for obvious reasons.
In an address to the Vatican Jubilee of the World of Communications earlier this year, titled ‘Hope comes from action’, Ressa drew connections between the rise of authoritarianism and the power of Big Tech, with its manipulation of humanity through undermining of facts and cohesion, and its spread of fear, anger and hate.
“We are living through a profound transformation of our world. The last time something like what we are living today happened, when new technology enabled the rise of fascism, was 80 years ago,” said Ressa, who is Professor of Professional Practice in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York City, and co-founder and CEO of the Filipino news site Rappler.
“That was roughly around the last time a journalist was given the Nobel peace prize, except Carl von Ossietzky wasn’t as lucky as I was. He languished in a Nazi prison and couldn’t accept the award. For many years now, I’ve sounded the alarm: just like in Hiroshima, an atom bomb exploded in our information ecosystem.”
Ressa said Big Tech transformed social media from a tool of connection into a weapon of mass behavioural engineering “designed to exploit our deepest psychological vulnerabilities”.
“They monetise our outrage and hate; amplify our divisions; and systematically erode our capacity for nuanced thinking, our capacity for empathy,” she told the Vatican gathering.
By repeating lies, Big Tech is making people accept them as facts. “If you make people believe lies are facts, then you can control them,” Ressa said.
“The business model of Big Tech pushes this…Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without these three, we have no shared reality; we can’t begin to solve any problem, let alone the existential ones like climate change. We can’t have journalism; we can’t have communications; we can’t have democracy.”
Rappler also addressed the role of Big Tech in information warfare and geopolitical powerplay, contributing to wars and conflict.
“These wars are fought not just with missiles and tanks, but with algorithms, disinformation, and the systematic destruction of truth, and our communities of trust,” she said.
Rappler urged the Vatican audience to collaborate and build and strengthen trust, to speak truth with moral clarity and to not remain silent in the face of injustice, whether it’s systemic racism, economic inequality, or the erosion of democratic norms.
She also urged protecting the most vulnerable through “collective vigilance” to prevent the normalisation of hate and weaponisation of gender and race. She called for communities to “recognise your power”, saying “building peace is not reserved for heroes; it’s the collective work of people who refuse to accept and live lies”.
Ressa’s speech (which you can read and watch) and wider work provide important context for discussions about tackling misinformation and disinformation, which too often fall into the trap of narrow rather than systemic solutions.
She also provides a compelling example of the power and leadership of lived experience, having suffered great personal and professional hardship as the result of disinformation attacks.
Health sector leaders
As we reported last week, a Croakey survey of health sector leaders has shown strong support for a comprehensive national strategy to tackle misinformation and disinformation.
The strategy should be Government-led but developed via broad consultation and take a whole-of-government approach, across all levels of government, sectors and geographies, experts told Croakey.
It should take an evidence-based, multipronged approach that includes regulation, support and education, and should address the structural drivers of misinformation, including corporate influence, they said.
Suggestions for components of a strategy include:
- Regulation of Big Tech
- Fact checking initiatives
- Community-led initiatives
- Investment in health, climate and media literacy
- Rapid response for countering misinformation
- Investment in media/public interest journalism/local and independent newsrooms
- Legislation to manage risk
- Awareness raising
- Education on critical analysis, identifying fake news.
Below are comments from Professor Aletha Ward, Alison Verhoeven, Dr Kate Wylie, Claire Stuchbery and Dr Lilon Bandler. Further comments will be published next week.
Public health threats
Professor Aletha Ward, University of Queensland
I strongly support the call for a national strategy to address misinformation and disinformation, particularly as they relate to health, climate, and First Nations issues.
Misinformation and disinformation are not just nuisances; they are public health threats that exacerbate inequities and erode trust in evidence-based care.
A national strategy must be independent, community-led, and responsive—ensuring that First Nations voices, healthcare professionals, and public health experts are central in shaping and delivering credible, evidence based, accessible information.
A robust national strategy should include:
- Legislative and regulatory mechanisms to hold platforms accountable for the spread of false and harmful information.
- Stronger collaboration between government, academia, independent media, and public health organisations to ensure coordinated, evidence-based responses to misinformation crises.
- Community-led initiatives that empower First Nations and other marginalised groups to challenge misinformation and provide culturally safe, trusted sources of information.
- Investment in health and climate literacy programs, equipping healthcare professionals and the broader public with the skills to critically assess information.
- A rapid response system for countering misinformation in real time, particularly during public health crises.
The leadership of this strategy must be independent, with oversight from an expert advisory panel comprising public health professionals, media experts, First Nations leaders, and representatives from civil society organisations. It cannot be left solely to government or social media platforms, as both have vested interests that may not always align with public health priorities.
Next steps should involve broad consultation with communities, researchers, and journalists to develop a framework for implementation. We also need funding commitments to sustain long-term efforts rather than reactive, short-term campaigns.
Beyond a national strategy, we must also address the structural drivers of misinformation – particularly corporate influence on public discourse, inadequate media regulation, and the erosion of trust in institutions due to failures in transparency and accountability.
Imperative
Alison Verhoeven, health policy expert and director of Croakey Health Media
As we head towards an election and in an international environment rife with misinformation and disinformation, a national strategy to address this is imperative.
The social and political problems caused by misinformation and disinformation have the potential to completely destabilise the fabric of our society, causing significant harm to us all.
The strategy must include investment in the media including public interest journalism and fact-checking services, as well as concerted efforts to identify and stamp out misinformation and disinformation, both through use of intelligence to identify sources and legislation to manage risk.
The strategy should be led by government, which has the necessary resources, powers and intelligence capability, but it should include trusted partners, including public interest journalism, academic and social institutions.
We need to be developing public awareness of the risks of misinformation and disinformation, including educating children and adults about how they can better identify information which is trustworthy.
It would be a good first step if our political leaders, journalists and educators started taking the risks of misinformation and disinformation seriously – questioning, calling it out, responding with positive actions to counter it.
But a coordinated approach through a national strategy would ensure longer term and consistent action.
Nationwide campaign needed
Dr Kate Wylie, GP and Executive Director, Doctors for the Environment Australia
Fake news is a serious problem. We are at a stage where images and facts are easily manipulated by anyone with a computer, where misinformation is being used for political gain and where 97 percent of us do not have the skills to verify information on-line.
This not only leaves us vulnerable to misleading information, it also erodes trust in credible sources.
This wouldn’t matter if all that was being manipulated were cute memes about pets, but when it is being used to spread falsehoods about global issues like climate change, immunisation or who started a war then we have a very serious problem indeed.
Consider President Trump’s recent statement that Ukraine “should never have started” the war with Ukraine. It’s a known fact that Russia invaded Ukraine, but when a President with 101.6 million followers on X/Twitter then follows up his statement with a tweet accusing Zelenskyy of wanting to “keep the gravy train going” and fails to mention Putin or Russia’s role as aggressor, then we have moved past misinformation into the realm of propaganda.
Although there are many calling out Trump’s falsehood in the comments, 645,000 people accepted the message by liking the post (as at 7 March).
Facilitating the rise of misinformation and disinformation is the media landscape.
Social media is an integral part of the problem. Meta has given up fact checking and one cannot accept that Elon Musk’s X is an impartial source considering his political role.
There are bad actors within mainstream media too, who seem to have forgotten their journalistic code of ethics to report honestly and seem very comfortable in using their opinions to push ideologies above facts.
So, we have a very big problem indeed and certainly need a strategy to address it.
Our Federal Government is the obvious group to drive such a strategy but they would need the cooperation of mainstream and social media for any chance of success. It would also need to pass through both houses of Parliament.
Last year’s Communications Amendment (Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 was withdrawn after opposition regarding its overstepping our right to freedom of speech, so the likelihood of cross-party support is low.
A first step would require a nationwide public education campaign, using social media and mainstream media to raise awareness of fake news and tips on how to spot it.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority does have guidance on this on their website and deserve budgetary support to elevate this information.
The advice there is sensible – check the source, look at the facts, read the full story, look at images closely, verify the information and if in doubt, don’t share it. But such is the quick nature of our engagement with socials, I doubt most of us would bother.
Sadly I think Pandora’s Box has been opened, and too many powerful people profit from fake news for us to be able to rein it in now.
An antidote
Claire Stuchbery, CEO of the Local and Independent News Association (LINA)
Q: Do you support the call for a national strategy to address misinformation and disinformation?
Given the impacts of misinformation and disinformation on democracy and social cohesion, there are naturally a lot of organisations working actively in this space. A coordinated national strategy could help make these efforts more efficient.
LINA shares concern about the rise of misinformation and disinformation and would be supportive of a national strategy to address this issue.
Q: What elements would you like to see in such a strategy? Who should drive it?
There are a number of organisations doing great work in developing media literacy training targeted to different age groups, which is a key factor in providing people with the skillsets to identify misinformation and disinformation.
We see potential for local news organisations to help their communities develop these skills using relatable local examples, considering they are already investigating and exposing misinformation and disinformation in their areas, and have the audience trust that comes from being embedded in the communities they serve.
Regardless of who were to drive this strategy, we’d like to see this potential unlocked through funding support to local and independent newsrooms.
Q: What are the next steps?
LINA welcomed the Albanese Government’s December announcement of a $153.5 million investment over four years into the news industry through the News Media Assistance Program (News MAP).
Part of this funding is earmarked specifically to support media literacy, and all of it will ideally in some way support newsrooms in Australia with their capacity to produce quality, fact-checked and nuanced reporting.
Australia’s news media industry is in urgent need of support, so we hope to see this funding rolled out as soon as possible.
Any action that can be done to support media diversity and public interest journalism will improve the accessibility, relevance and quality of the information Australians are receiving, and therefore help mitigate the impacts of misleading or fake news.
Q: Do you have any other suggestions for addressing mis- and dis-information?
Access to high-quality public interest journalism, produced with professional editorial standards such as transparency, accuracy and accountability, is an antidote to the mis and disinformation that circulates in communities.
The capacity of newsrooms to investigate, myth-bust and raise awareness in communities of unsubstantiated information is interconnected with the sustainability of news services and their nuanced subject-matter knowledge on matters not covered by other media outlets.
There is a symbiotic relationship between resourcing of newsrooms and combatting mis and disinformation as and when it emerges in local communities.
Everyone’s responsibility
Dr Lilon Bandler, medical practitioner at Matthew Talbot Hostel Primary Health Clinic
Such a strategy should be driven by everyone.
We need to have a hymn sheet – stating the objectives and the words to support it, so we are all saying the same thing: respect expertise that is NOT driven by self-interest.
The strategy should include:
- A serious injection of funding, to fact-check. This is time-consuming work, but helps those of use arguing against the prevailing wave of disinformation.
- It needs to recognise the long-term goals of:
– Replacing hearsay, gossip, social media advice, advertorials and advertising with good sources of information. An example is the Victorian Better Health Channel. It is an excellent site to refer people to: good information (well-researched), presented in readable and useful language, excellent readability scores.
– Bringing back respect for expertise.
Obviously there are huge gaps in health knowledge. However, what we absolutely DO know is that immunisation is one of the greatest success stories in public health.
I am from a generation that well remembers children coming in near-death (and on occasion, dying) with Haemophilus influenza B (HiB). I grew up with people who had life-long disabilities from polio. To appoint Mr Kennedy to a senior role in USA health is gob-smacking. It flies in the face of centuries of health knowledge and accumulated knowledge.
And it stems from the complete disregard for people’s knowledge of the field.
I don’t know how you change that, now that the rot has set in.
And it’s not only in the field of health and healthcare. It is similar in any field that requires long-term training and understanding, such as weather, climate, migration, education. The list is long.
Next steps include:
- An injection of funding into fact-checking, unspoilt by vested and particularly commercial interests.
- A large public health campaign explaining programs like:
– immunisation
– antenatal care, which is essential in reducing maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality
– sanitation, which is essential to reduce transmission of disease, and prevent, for example, under-five mortality related to diarrhoeal disease - GOOD campaigns – not crappy ones like political advertisements. Engaging. The “Dumb Ways to Die” campaign is a great example
- The provision of good, accessible information.
• Our next article in this series will feature comments from Professor Virginia Barbour, Kristy Schirmer, Professor Sora Park, Professor Linda Slack-Smith, Ika Trijsburg, Dr John Paterson, Dr Lesley Russell, Adjunct Associate Professor Sophie Scott OAM, and others.
Previously at Croakey
- A call for tough legislation to curb misinformation and disinformation, by Professor Nick Talley
- We need a strategic national effort to tackle misinformation and disinformation, by Croakey Health Media
- See Croakey’s archive of articles on misinformation and disinformation.
