WE ARE in a period when lies and half-truths can easily be spread with the democratization of the information machinery, specifically social media. Traditional media has remained a specialized field despite the advent of digital technology and its easy availability, but social media is not. Everybody, including liars and schemers, can spread lies and schemes through the Net.
This should prod us to rely more on traditional media--with its long practice of truth telling and use of professionals trained in the task of truth telling and steeped in ethical standards refined through the decades--and recognized social media truth tellers themselves. And there is hope. In the initial burst of disinformation spreading, notably in the 2016 presidential elections, many Pinoys got duped. In this year’s elections, not so.
One could no longer find popular spreaders of fake news and half-truths these days, or where are the Mocha Usons, Thinking Pinoys and Sass Sassots of the world nowadays? Facebook, for example, learning the lessons of 2016 in the Philippines and even the elections in other countries, like in the United States in the past, has clamped down on disinformation. Major social media sites now rely on an army of fact checkers for the purpose and social media users themselves have become fact checkers themselves to a certain extent.
Facebook has recently taken down the pages identified with a Duterte supporter, crippling the disinformation efforts of pro-government forces. But the effect of the increasing awareness of the acts of social media schemers has gotten both ways. Claims made by the opposition are being subjected to the same deep scrutiny as the claims by diehard Duterte supporters.
The claim made by a certain “Bikoy” on YouTube linking the Duterte family and senatorial bet Christopher ”Bong” Go to the illegal drugs trade may have gone viral but the public is apparently hesitant to fully believe in it. The claim and the denials issued by the government and pro-Duterte people have been entertaining so far though. Now pro-Duterte forces are flailing wildly.
Government and diehard Duterte supporters have come up with their own fantastic claim by resurrecting the old claim first made by presidential son Paolo Duterte about an “Oust Duterte Movement.” That claim didn’t fly because the “matrix” Duterte presented included a dead bishop and Jollibee. Now the matrix includes respected media personalities and institutions, obviously because the “Bikoy” postings were well-crafted and media had to be linked somehow.
But if people were hesitant to fully believe in Bikoy’s claim, why would they fully believe in the questionable “Oust Duterte” claim with its equally questionable matrix? Even the military said it hasn’t received reports on specific threats to the Duterte presidency. That denial is like telling the people who originated it that their story is built on fantasy.
As they say, one just cannot fool all of the people all of the time.