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Marcos heir wins Philippine election misinformation race

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Faith Brown, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. addresses the crowd at the WES Arena in Punturin, Valenzuela City on Feb. 10, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/file" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/tvpatrol/02/14/20220210-election-campaign-bbm-sara-gc-vu2a1053.jpg"/><figcaption>Presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. addresses the crowd at the WES Arena in Punturin, Valenzuela City on Feb. 10, 2022. <em>George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/file</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA - Philippine social media has exploded with support for presidential election favorite Ferdinand Marcos Junior, driven by a massive misinformation campaign aimed at revamping the family brand and smearing his top rival. </p><p>False and misleading claims have flooded Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter in the lead-up to the May 9 polls, pounding Filipinos with a relentless barrage of propaganda on platforms where they rank among the heaviest users in the world.</p><p>Voter surveys show the son and namesake of the country&#x27;s former dictator heading towards a landslide victory -- the endgame of a decades-long, well-funded effort to return the family to the presidential palace they fled in disgrace in 1986.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1945243" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/03/03/22/ex-pcgg-commissioner-marcos-jr-responsible-for-hiding-familys-ill-gotten-wealth">Ex-PCGG commissioner: Marcos Jr. responsible for hiding family&#x27;s ill-gotten wealth</a></li></ul><p>Critics and opponents accuse Marcos Jr and his supporters of trying to portray his father&#x27;s two-decade rule as a golden age of peace and prosperity while whitewashing human rights abuses and the plundering of state coffers. </p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1779362" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>But the effort to make over the family&#x27;s image appears to be translating into votes among the largely young electorate and those nostalgic for the Marcos years. </p><p>Al Contrata, 25, was born a decade after a military-backed popular uprising toppled the dictator from power and chased the family into exile in the United States. </p><p>Facebook posts about the elder Marcos have persuaded him to vote for his son.</p><p>&quot;I learned about the infrastructure that was built during the time of president Marcos. Since then, I saw him in a positive light,&quot; said Contrata, a delivery driver near Manila, who voted for President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.</p><p>&quot;I think maybe Bongbong Marcos can continue what his father started,&quot; referring to the candidate by his nickname.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Marcos" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/09/20/sep5_marcos-wealth.jpg?"/></figure></div><div><strong>&#x27;TROLL ARMIES&#x27;</strong></div><p>Election-related misinformation has focused primarily on the two presidential frontrunners, Marcos Jr and incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo, analysis by AFP&#x27;s Fact Check team and local fact-checking alliance Tsek.ph shows. </p><p>&quot;Data show Robredo reeling from preponderantly negative messages and Marcos Jr enjoying overwhelming positive ones,&quot; said Maria Diosa Labiste and Yvonne Chua of Tsek.ph.</p><p>They said the trend was reminiscent of the flood of posts about Duterte and his opponents in 2016 that were seen as key to his win.</p><p>Marcos Jr draws support from the family&#x27;s northern stronghold as well as his alliance with vice presidential candidate and first daughter Sara Duterte. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/spotlight/02/26/22/why-online-trolls-are-valuable-in-election-campaigns">‘To amplify, avert, attack’: Why online trolls are valuable in election campaigns</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/03/16/22/pulse-asia-marcos-appeal-shows-effective-rebranding">Pulse Asia: Surveys showing Marcos most trustworthy shows effective ‘rebranding’</a></li></ul><p>But social media&#x27;s influence is critical.</p><p>One major battleground is Facebook, the most popular platform in the Philippines and used by most of its 76 million internet users. </p><p>Since Marcos Jr&#x27;s narrow loss to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential race, pro-Marcos pages have pumped out misinformation about everything from electoral fraud and the family&#x27;s wealth to economic achievements during his father&#x27;s rule.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/02/25/22/disinformation-attempts-to-rehabilitate-the-marcoses-disparage-edsa">Disinformation attempts to rehabilitate the Marcoses, disparage EDSA</a></li></ul><p>Robredo, who trailed Marcos by 45 percentage points in the latest poll by Pulse Asia Research, has also been a major target. </p><p>Among the dozens of claims about the Marcoses debunked by AFP is the popular assertion that the patriarch made his fortune when he was a lawyer via a massive gold payment from a client.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/09/21/17/marcos-gold-bars-fact-or-fiction">Marcos gold bars: Fact or fiction?</a></li></ul><p>AFP also fact-checked dozens of false or misleading claims about Robredo, including doctored photos and videos that aim to portray her as stupid, unfriendly towards voters or even a communist. </p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KydZTXta2F8?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>Activity has only intensified ahead of the 2022 elections, drowning out support for Robredo. </p><p>In the past year, there have been nearly 75 million interactions -- reactions, comments or shares -- with posts on more than a hundred pro-Marcos pages with at least 3,000 followers, according to data from social media monitoring platform CrowdTangle.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/03/08/22/marcos-jr-leads-presidency-race-backed-by-young-and-mid-aged">Marcos Jr. leads presidency race, backed by young and mid-aged</a></li></ul><p>That compares with just over 39 million interactions for the same number of pages promoting Robredo.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Marcos" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/news/02/25/tsek-ph-embed-photo-2.jpg"/></figure></div><p>When Robredo announced her presidential bid on October 7, interactions on pro-Marcos pages spiked to more than 1.8 million -- about nine times the daily average. </p><p>Pro-Robredo pages received 487,000 interactions. </p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s hard for the other campaigns to compete with the Marcos machinery online, because this is six years in the making,&quot; said Cleve Arguelles, an assistant lecturer in political science at De La Salle University in Manila.</p><p>&quot;They&#x27;ve really worked hard to dominate these spaces and they&#x27;re reaping the benefits of investing early in troll armies and building these online communities.&quot;</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1945241" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>It is not possible to tell how many of the pages were created by real supporters or the candidates. </p><p>In January, Twitter suspended more than 300 accounts reportedly linked to supporters of Marcos Jr, which the social media giant said had violated its rules on manipulation and spam.</p><p>Marcos Jr has denied using trolls.</p><p>https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/05/22/find-me-one-marcos-jr-denies-troll-farms-in-campaign</p><p>In an interview with the One PH channel broadcast on Monday, he accused fact-checkers of sometimes having &quot;their own agenda&quot; and inventing quotes that they attributed to him. </p><p>&quot;For me, I am the victim of fake news, because there are many things that were said about me that are not true,&quot; Marcos Jr said.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="marcos-wealth" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/09/20/sep5_marcos-wealth.jpg"/></figure></div><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="marcos-wealth" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2017/news/09/20/sep5_marcos-wealth.jpg"/></figure></div><div><strong>&#x27;LONG TERM INVESTMENT&#x27;</strong></div><p>Marcos Jr&#x27;s social media strength is the result of a &quot;long-term investment&quot; to rehabilitate the family brand, said Jonathan Corpus Ong, a disinformation researcher at the University of Massachusetts and Harvard University.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Marcoses" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/06/26/20190626-imee-marcos-fb.jpg"/></figure></div><p>After the fallen dictator&#x27;s death in 1989, his heirs returned home and began their remarkable political comeback, getting elected to public office while distancing themselves from their past.</p><p>The Marcoses have previously denied local media reports that they asked the now-defunct British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica -- at the center of a Facebook data scandal in the past decade -- to &quot;rebrand&quot; the family.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/16/20/bongbong-requested-cambridge-analytica-to-rebrand-family-image-says-whistleblower-marcos-denies-claim">Bongbong Marcos requested Cambridge Analytica to rebrand family image: whistleblower</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/10/27/21/imee-denies-marcoses-tapped-cambridge-analytica-for-rebranding">&#x27;Nakakatakot&#x27;: Imee Marcos denies family tapped Cambridge Analytica for rebranding</a></li></ul><p>Members of the clan are often portrayed as victims in misleading posts claiming they receive unfair treatment from mainstream media -- echoing claims by former US president Donald Trump. </p><p>Those messages resonated with Nelson Sy, 59, who manages two pro-Marcos groups on Facebook. </p><p>Sy, who sells imported cosmetics and perfumes in Manila, admitted becoming an &quot;even more avid supporter&quot; of Marcos Jr after seeing posts that &quot;attacked&quot; him.</p><p>&quot;You know what they say, &#x27;the more they attack, the more we multiply&#x27;,&quot; said Sy, who rejects fraud accusations against the Marcoses. </p><p>To combat misinformation, Facebook said it was working with the Commission on Elections to &quot;connect people with accurate election information&quot; as well as supporting fact-checking activities and investing in education programs.</p><p>But Maria Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist and co-founder of local news site Rappler, said the platform could do more to &quot;help bring down the lies&quot;.</p><p>&quot;You cannot have integrity of elections if you don&#x27;t have integrity of facts,&quot; she said.</p><p>&quot;If they make the facts debatable, they are essentially... dooming our nation.&quot;</p><p>fb/amj/cwl/jfx</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

Philippine social media has exploded with support for presidential election favorite Ferdinand Marcos Junior, driven by a massive misinformation campaign aimed at revamping the family brand and smearing his top rival. 

Marcos heir wins Philippine election misinformation race

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Marcos heir wins Philippine election misinformation race

Faith Brown,

Agence France-Presse

Published Mar 23, 2022 12:19 PM PHT

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