LIKE any epic of great battle between the good and the evil forces, “angels” can subdue the burgeoning trolls and smurfs in the social media.
Angels in this context are social media “influencers,” the taxing target of the BIR, sensing it is becoming a lucrative craft for the election season.
These angels can easily influence generation Z voters by establishing small scale press conferences called “ground game” in lieu of the traditional plaza gatherings.
Ground game was proven effective in the latest US presidential election.
In 2016, Donald Trump took office as an upshot of the Russia-based troll yard. But in 2020 Joseph Biden called the youth in the entire Democratic Party “It’s time for our better angels to prevail.”
Biden’s Angels downcast Trump’s trolls in the 2020 US presidential election.
Here in our country trolls exist as early as the 2016 presidential election too. But no one came up with hard evidence about the operation.
In 2019 however, Facebook took down 40 groups, 67 pages, 68 accounts and 25 Instagram links to a certain Nic Gabunada as being “inauthentic coordinated behavior.”
The common signs to note that you are interacting with a troll or smurf are: it spread half-truth or fake news; discredit dissenting opinions; harass challengers, engage in name-calling, mudslinging; and copy-pasting messages into news feeds or fora if only to sway public opinion.
Nathaniel Gleicher, the Facebook’s cybersecurity head said, Nic Gabunada was “working on behalf of political candidates” for the 2019 elections.
The pages were used to mislead people about the original content that violates FBs community standard, and it was shut down.
Yet, the senatorial candidates of the administration whom Gabunada worked for, overwhelmingly won.
Gabunada, according to our source, is a PR man from Davao who worked as a social media strategist of President Duterte in the 2016 elections.
The same person was recently awarded for a new contract worth Php900,000 as social media strategist of the Department of Finance.
Despite Facebook's discovery, no one can sue a fictitious account.
Unless the social media machinists will require a person to reveal personality in opening an account for them to be responsible and judicious in all flexes.