Maria Ressa blasts social media as she receives Nobel Peace Prize

Maria Ressa warned against the role of unfettered social media in spreading lies and division.

The crucial role of journalism in a free democratic society was the message of  the two journalists -- Maria Ressa and Dmetry Murotov -- who received the Nobel Peace Prize Friday.

"Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that's coursing through our information ecosystem, prioritized by American internet companies that make more money," said Filipina American Ressa as she received the coveted award.

She accused U.S. social media giants like Facebook of spreading a "flood of toxic sludge" sowing division and hate through their platforms.

"Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that's coursing through our information ecosystem," said Ressa, the first Filipino American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

The 58-year old co-founder the online news outlet Rappler in the Philippines has long been a vocal critic of social media that she accused Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of weaponizing by hiring trolls to spread lies and half-truths against her and Rappler because of their criticism of Duterte's extrajudicial was on drugs that has fostered vigilante violence throughout the Philippines.

READ or WATCH Maria Ressa's Nobel Peace Prize speech.

"The attacks against us in Rappler began five years ago when we demanded an end to impunity on two fronts: Duterte's drug war and Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook," she said.

“These American companies controlling our global information ecosystem are biased against facts, biased against journalists,” she said. “They are — by design — dividing us and radicalizing us.”

The 2020 elections in the U.S. and the upcoming Presidential election in the Philippines in 2022 are war zones with democracy in the two countries at stake, she has warned earlier.

"You have to know what values you are fighting for, and you have to draw the lines early -- but if you haven't done so, do it now: where this side you're good, and this side, you're evil," she told her Nebel audience in Oslo, Norway. "Some governments may be lost causes, and if you're working in tech, I'm talking to you: How can you have election integrity if you don't have integrity of facts?"

The social network has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for how its algorithms promote content. CEOs and representatives of Facebook, Twitter and other media giants have been grilled by Congressional committees for their role in spreading false information. U.S. civil rights organizations have tried to convince Facebook leadership that it must address the use of its platform to spread voter disinformation, to intimidate and incite hate against vulnerable populations, and to otherwise undermine democracy. 

Ressa and her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was a young girl became an American citizen in 1973. She worked for CNN before founding Rappler.

Murotov, 60, is the editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s most outspoken national newspaper, for more than 25 years. He warned about the escalation of war rhetoric and the rise of authoritative leaders.

“The world has fallen out of love with democracy,” Muratov said in his acceptance  speech. “The world has become disappointed with the elites in power. The world has begun to turn to dictatorship.”