Rappler (portmanteau of the words "rap" and "ripple")[3] is a Filipino online news website based in Pasig, Metro Manila, the Philippines.

[6] Rappler and its staff alleged it was being targeted for its revelations of corruption by government and elected officials, the usage of bots and trolls favoring Rodrigo Duterte's administration,[7] and documenting the Philippine drug war.

[8][9] In October 2021, Rappler co-founder Ressa, alongside Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for safeguarding freedom of expression in their homelands.

Other key people involved in its conceptualization and creation were former Newsbreak head and ABS-CBN News Channel managing editor Glenda Gloria, journalist and Ateneo De Manila University professor Chay Hofileña, former TV Patrol executive producer Lilibeth Frondoso, Philippine Internet pioneer Nix Nolledo, Internet entrepreneur Manuel I. Ayala, and former NBC Universal Global Networks Asia-Pacific managing director Raymund Miranda.

[18] Rappler then sought a petition for review from the Court of Appeals on January 28, but was rejected on July 26, 2018, finding no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the SEC.

This led to Facebook tapping Rappler and Vera Files in April 2018 to be its Philippine partners on its worldwide fact-checking program, in part because of their participation in the IFCN.

– Maria Ressa[24]On August 9, 2024, the Court of Appeals Special 7th Division promulgated a July 23 decision overturning the Securities and Exchange Commission's order in 2018 to shut down Rappler on foreign ownership grounds, citing "grave abuse of discretion" and other legal and constitutional violations by the former.

[30] The Rappler Mood Meter, which is similar to Facebook Reactions,[31] won the Bronze Medal for Brand Experience at the 2012 Boomerang Awards sponsored by the Internet Media Marketing Association of the Philippines.

[36] Agos is a crowdsourcing platform focused on disaster risk reduction and mitigation using digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and social media.

[37] Rappler traces part of its roots to Newsbreak, an investigative news magazine established in 2001 and noted for its coverage of political and social issues in the Philippines.

[44] If all of the cases filed against Ressa related to her management of Rappler up to June 18, 2020, were to result in guilty verdicts after final appeal, and the sentences were all to run consecutively, she would face around 100 years in prison.

[53][54][55] Members of the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives, mostly from the opposition,[56] issued statements of concern, describing the SEC revocation of Rappler's license as "a loss for dissenting voices and free speech",[54] "pure harassment" and "straight out of the dictator's playbook",[56][54] and an "affront on press freedom.

[19] On June 29, 2022, Ressa released a statement during an international conference affirming that the SEC had upheld its earlier ruling to revoke Rappler's operating license.

[24] The National Bureau of Investigation of the Philippines subpoenaed Ressa and a former Rappler reporter on January 18, 2018, in connection with an online libel complaint filed by private entrepreneur Wilfredo Keng.

The complaint was for a 2012 article that reported that then Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona had been using a luxury vehicle owned by Keng.

[61] On March 8, 2018, the National Bureau of Investigation lodged before the Department of Justice (DoJ) a cyber libel complaint against Rappler and its officers (Maria Ressa, former Rappler reporter Reynaldo Santos, Jr. who wrote the story, and directors and officers Manuel Ayala, Nico Jose Nolledo, Glenda Gloria, James Bitanga, Felicia Atienza, Dan Albert de Padua and Jose Maria G. Hofilena) in connection with a news article published in 2012 wherein citing in the complaint stated that “Unlike published materials on print, defamatory statements online, such as those contained in the libelous article written and published by subjects, [are]indubitably considered as a continuing crime until and unless the libelous article is actually removed or taken down.

[69] Ressa and Reynaldo Santos, Jr. were convicted of cyberlibel by Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 46 on June 15, 2020, and sentenced to a maximum of six years in jail, along with being ordered to pay fines of ₱400,000 each.

[79] However, her arraignment in this case was suspended as she filed a motion to quash the information,[80] and she was not arrested in connection with this warrant, as she posted bail in the amount of ₱60,000 the same day.

The arrest warrant was issued by the Pasig RTC Branch 265 against Ressa in connection with yet another case she and members of Rappler's 2016 board are facing, this time for alleged violations of the Anti-Dummy Law (C.A.