Examples of fake news and/or trolling in Social Media

Fake News

Uson shared a post of a Duterte supporter which claimed that a young girl was murdered due to the drug problem in the Philippines. She was reportedly outraged as to why the Commission on Human Rights didn’t focus on the incident. However, the photo was of a nine-year-old Brazilian girl who was raped and murdered in 2014. BBC called her on it and she later took down the post.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that even if COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reach 10 million, only 10,000 would likely die, and Filipinos should instead be thankful that the President is not infected.

Trolling

They are hired guns in one of Manila’s hundreds of troll farms churning out fake content, false narratives and anything else the client wants. This trolling mission was for a candidate running for the Philippine Senate. One aim was to cook up fake social media accounts to make it appear as if the candidate had a vast and fervent base of supporters. Another goal was to smear any critics, especially those who call them out for precisely the jobs they do. The world of Internet trolls — the gaslighting, the fabrications, the nastiness — is now a fact of life in the Web ecosystem nearly everywhere.

References:

Mahtani, S., Cabato, R. (2019). Why crafty Internet trolls in the Philippines may be coming to a website near. Retrieved from. youhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/why-crafty-internet-trolls-in-the-philippines-may-be-coming-to-a-website-near-you/2019/07/25/c5d42ee2-5c53-11e9-98d4-844088d135f2_story.html

Rappler. (2020). FALSE: Roque quote on 10,000 COVID-19 deaths. Retrieved from. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/fact-check/roque-quote-coronavirus-deaths

Arias, J. (2019). A list of Mocha Uson’s fake news posts. Retrieved from. https://preen.ph/58185/a-list-of-mocha-usons-fake-news-posts