Rappler CEO and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa tells 2,000 One Young World Summit delegates about the importance of speaking truth to power, how to resist the two dictators of our world, and how to fight the algorithms and platforms that threaten to strip us of our agency.

Ressa spoke during the summit’s opening ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 3, 2026. The event, gathering young leaders from over 190 countries, concluded on November 6.

Here is the complete transcript of Ressa’s speech.

Hello, One Young World!!

February 13, 2019. Manila. The Rappler newsroom.

Plainclothes officers walk in to arrest me. One of our reporters, 24-year-old Aika Rey, raises her phone and begins livestreaming my arrest.

An officer turns to her: “Be silent. Or you’re next.” 

Her hand is shaking. But she keeps livestreaming. 

Or Pia Ranada – Pia, where are you? Bullied by our dictator, her mic turned off while asking a question. Her voice was shaking. But she kept asking.

That’s what courage looks like. Not the absence of fear. The decision that something matters more. 

At Rappler, we were drowning in online attacks. We couldn’t defeat a machinery of lies. It was like playing whack-a-mole. So we stepped out of the virtual line of fire and into the real world. We brought newsrooms together with teachers, churches, students, lawyers, and built communities of action. IRL.

We took facts off the screen and put them into relationships. Because one of the best ways to reclaim our humanity is to be human: to meet people, walk with them, and hold their hands. 

And now we see that lesson travel. 

In Serbia, students took their movement from their phones into town squares. They cycled across their country, meeting neighbors face to face. Nine days ago, that movement won a parliamentary election.

In Brazil, I felt the desperation – which pushed people into the real world, the largest turnout in 2 decades. When buses were missing on election day, people picked up their car keys and drove their neighbors to the polls. In Hungary, the man who ended 16 years of Orban’s rule shook people’s hands – some of them twice! 

Different countries. Different histories. The same lesson: technology may connect us, but real human relationships give us the courage to act. 

Courage is contagious. But you have to be close enough to catch it.

Why is this so urgent? Because the forces working against us are powerful. 

In my new book, THE FIGHT BACK, I name my 2 dictators who acted with impunity: Rodrigo Duterte, who tried to jail me for the rest of my life. And Mark Zuckerberg – and the handful of tech oligarchs who now decide what billions of people see, feel, and believe. One used the power of the state. The other built the machine that spread the state’s lies faster than facts – and made a lot of money doing it. Each fed the other. Today, Duterte sits in a cell at the Hague, facing charges of crimes against humanity. Impunity can end. The other — the tech dictator — well, those men have only gained more power and money. 

We have systems of accountability for state dictators — creaky and being tested, but still working. But we have none for the tech CEOs that rule our lives. THE FIGHT BACK is about how YOU can change that. 

I describe 3 cascading crises: truth, order, and accountability. The 3 sentences I’ve said for a decade now – and yes, I feel like Cassandra and Sisyphus combined! 

Without facts, you can’t have truth. Without truth, you can’t have trust. Without these three, we have no shared reality — and no way to solve our problems together. 

None of the technology that rules our lives is based on facts. They’re designed to hack our biology, to steal our data. They are predatory and extractive. So this isn’t just about your cell phone. It’s a fight about who has power over our lives. 

First, social media captured our attention — manipulating what makes us angry, gathering data on our fear. Making us hate so we keep scrolling.

Then chatbots invaded our intimacy, pretending to be human, exploiting our loneliness and fear. 

Next come AI agents that can act for us, making decisions we may not have authorized.

Attention. Intimacy. Agency. 

Who controls them? Who benefits? Who is accountable when they cause harm? 

Big Tech calls us USERS. Think about that word. Users. Not children. Not teenagers. Not citizens. Users. 

The first fight globally that’s gained traction is to protect our youth. A child doesn’t become an adult just because she picks up a smartphone. Safety must be built into technology – not left for children to fight for on their own. 

I think of Emman Atienza, whom I knew from when she was small. She grew into a young woman who spoke openly about the cruelty of online harassment. She died by suicide last year, at 19. Or Sewell Setzer, 14 years old, who spent months obsessing over a chatbot he nicknamed Dany – from Game of Thrones. He died by suicide in the arms of his mother. 

They are young lives that deserve dignity, kindness, and a bright future.

If someone near you is struggling, be there. Listen. Reach for a human being. We need one another.

At the United Nations, I co-chair the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI. 40 experts from around the world are building an independent evidence base – not for a handful of rich companies or powerful countries, but for everyone. 

Our first report found AI is already moving faster than our ability to make it safe or govern it. This year, OpenAI agents turned rogue. They passed messages to each other. They broke into another company’s systems — and into Australian government portals. And they tried to hide it. No human told them to do this. 

This isn’t science fiction. It’s evidence that human control, independent scrutiny, and accountability must be built in from the beginning. 

Here in Cape Town, let me say this: the future of AI must not be designed for Africa without Africa. For the global south, without us. You must be among its builders, scientists, journalists, lawmakers and decision-makers. 

But I am not going to leave you depressed. Because impunity can end. We can hold power to account. 

Real protections for children are now being built into the design of digital services, partly because the law is finally catching up. In October, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for deceiving users about their privacy in the Cambridge Analytica case. My country, the Philippines, had the second most number of compromised accounts after America. We were the testing ground. 

But we can’t just fight what’s broken. We need to build what should replace it. Chapter 8 — build your own infrastructure. 

That’s why, at Rappler, we built something called MUNI. In Filipino, muni means to reflect, to dream. It is also at the heart of the word community.

We’re building a different kind of digital world – one where journalists and citizens come together around facts, where conversations build trust, and where trust leads to action in real life. IRL.

We’re not abandoning technology. We’re reclaiming it. 

Because the future doesn’t have to be determined by the algorithms of a handful of billionaires. We can build technology that serves humanity rather than exploiting it. 

So let me leave you with 3 lessons from these battles — so you can fight back. 

First: move from the virtual world to the real world. Find your five. 5 people who will stand with you when you are attacked, who will meet you face to face, who will help when things get hard. Don’t leave solidarity trapped in a group chat. 

Second: fund the facts. Defend independent journalists. Check before you share. A lie travels around the world in seconds. A shared reality takes people willing to do the hard work of finding what’s true. Journalism is the vaccine against lies. 

Third: claim your agency. Don’t let an algorithm, a chatbot, or a strongman decide for you. Whether it’s a vote, a community meeting, or a decision about AI that will shape your future, show up and speak up. Ask who makes the rules. Ask whose interests they serve. How can you hold them  accountable? 

Before you leave Cape Town, find one person from another country. Choose one problem you can work on together. Agree on one action within 30 days. Not just a post. A meeting. A partnership. A real-world act. 

Fifty years ago, the students of Soweto showed the world that young people can change history. Their struggle was different from ours. But they knew that dignity was worth fighting for. 

Remember my young reporter, Aika? The officer tells her to be silent. Her hand shakes, but she holds up her phone anyway.

Tonight, please take out your phone. Turn on the light. Now raise it. 

Look around you. 

These points of light — we can hold the line. 

You aren’t just users. You’re citizens.

You aren’t just spectators. You’re leaders. 

Courage is contagious, but you have to be close enough to catch it. You are the light.

THE FIGHT BACK begins here. Together!

Go One Young World!!! Build better.

– Rappler.com