The Fall of Rosselló

I wasn’t surprised at all when Ricardo Rosselló resigned after massive protests on the streets of San Juan. It came after messages between Rosselló and some of his aides were leaked on Telegram, an instant messaging service.

In the messages, Rosselló and his friends slandered members of the opposition, women, homosexuals and even the victims of Hurricane María.

The chats were supposedly encrypted and the platform extremely secure. But they were leaked nevertheless. So after years of economic and political crisis, Puerto Ricans said it was enough and Roselló, the son of a long political dynasty on the island, had to resign.

The crisis has come to be called “the chat scandal” because it began with a few chats. How did it end? With a video on Facebook Live, the platform Roselló chose to address his country.
It is very evident that today all of us are Exposed. Sometimes it’s unintentional, such as when our private messages are leaked. Other times it is with our consent, like when we use social media to talk to the world. Either way, it’s clear that all of us are living in our underwear in a huge shop window in the full view of everyone.

Technology has connected all of us and the result is we are a small town again. Today everyone knows everything. The good is applauded; the bad is condemned. And announcements are made in the public spheres of social media.

Welcome to the transparent world. We have to be authentic. Any other stance in life leaves us totally vulnerable. My advice to you is this: from now on, do not do or say anything that you cannot tell in public.

Sergio is the author of the book “Expuestos. Las nuevas reglas del mundo transparente” (“Exposed: The new rules of a transparent world”), published by Conecta / Penguin Random House

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