Maria Ressa’s How to Stand Up to a Dictator is part memoir, part field manual, and essential reading on disinformation

💡 A memoir that doubles as a political record: Written by Filipino-American journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, How to Stand Up to a Dictator blends personal memoir with investigative field manual, examining how disinformation networks operate and how the data-driven economy built by major social media platforms sustains them.

What to expect: Ressa opens with her career trajectory — from CNN correspondent to founding the news platform Rappler in 2012 — before the book moves into a detailed account of how authoritarian systems, specifically the administration of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, weaponized the algorithms of platforms like Facebook to shape public opinion and silence dissent. Ressa argues that this model isn’t specific to the Philippines — but rather a global playbook that has proven effective in major geopolitical moments including Brexit and US elections.

What we liked: The book offers a detailed breakdown of how the disinformation economy works, and the role that manufactured outrage and platform manipulation play in feeding it. Ressa also notes that as the Philippine government waged its campaign against her, advertisers fled Rappler — forcing a shift to a diversified, technology-dependent business model that made the outlet less financially exposed. It’s an unexpected lesson in business management and how media organizations survive in the current environment.

What we didn’t like: Despite the strength of the argument, the book suffers from an uneven narrative pace. The first half holds together analytically; the second sinks into the weeds of complex battles and organizational charts of troll networks, which can lose the reader. The writing also tends toward didacticism — pitched at a reader living in a stable democracy — and occasionally frames a genuinely complicated landscape as a straightforward battle between heroes and villains, glossing over the grey areas where politics and technology actually intersect.

The verdict: An essential read for anyone trying to understand how governments weaponize information against their own populations — and what that means for market and social stability. It also offers a rare look inside the management of a media organization under sustained regulatory and political siege.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can get the e-book on Amazon. Keep an eye on Shorouk bookstores for a restock of the paperback edition.