I'm banking on the fact that there are still good people in government who will prevent this. I've been a journalist for more than 33 years, and at Rappler we refuse to change, I refuse to be bullied.
To deal with COVID-19, countries like India, Brazil, Jordan and Thailand are cutting press freedom and freedom of expression. In nations like Israel, South Korea and the U.S., intrusive surveillance has been imposed to track the movement of citizens, at the expense of human rights.
Enshrined in the Philippine constitution, which is similar to the United States, is the bill of rights: freedom of expression, freedom of the press. These are enshrined. And yet, freedom of the press has been curtailed.
So a lie told a million times becomes the truth.
Ninety-seven percent of Filipinos on the Internet are on Facebook. And according to Hootsuite or We Are Social, in January 2019, Filipinos spend the most time on the Internet, and they spend the most time on social media globally.
The seed idea for Rappler really is looking at information cascades. If you think about it, the end goal - when I was raising money for Rappler, I didn't talk about investigative journalism, even though that's our core.
Investigative journalism is never mass-based; it's very focused, and you want people who are passionate about it to take it.
Now technology gives you a chance to help organize. You don't have to wait for either the inefficiency or the corruption. You don't have to wait for government. You can actually self-organize and build institutions bottom up.
Constitutionally you can't have a law go retroactively.
I'm not a critic, I'm a journalist. I'm doing my job holding the government to account.
I landed in New Jersey, where I could barely speak English, and I had to figure out what a short brown kid was going to do in this big white world.
I think that social media platforms and technology have been the accelerator for the push for the populist-style administrations in democratically elected presidents.
Always make the choice to learn. What Princeton taught me was whatever mess you are studying, pull a thread with great persistence 'til you have clarity of thought. Princeton taught me how to solve a problem. How to think - that's what we pull out of this place.
When you're on social media, your brain is being rewired.
After I got arrested the Filipino government unshackled me. I knew first-hand how they violated my rights and I could speak about that from experience.
In a weird way, I'm a good target for the government, because I can push back.
My heroes were always a combination of Captain Kirk and Mr Spock. You have to be ruled by logic, but if you're only ruled by logic and you don't touch your emotions, you will make the wrong instinctive call.
Technology enabled Rappler's fast growth starting in 2012, but we were also among the first victims when social media was weaponized in 2016.
A Princeton education sets you up for life: you have learned how to learn, and at a time when technology has changed everything, you will constantly have to learn.
All through my life, when faced with a difficult decision, I always ask myself - where can I learn more. Make the choice to learn.
