#SocialMediaCrisis – Katrina Stuart Santiago

What is the size of a controversy? And how is a story magnified, amplified, expanded at this time when anyone at all can manufacture digital noise, generate so much content that it will make it to our newsfeeds despite our algorithmic bubbles?

The Rodrigo Duterte presidency was a grand display of how government propagandists could make mountains out of molehills, be it about the purported achievements of their beloved president, or about his declared political enemies. We now know what it takes to keep any narrative going, where content is constantly and consistently generated to feed it, to repeat what is being said, until it starts moving on its own. Case in point: the criticism against the elite, the label of dilawan, the terrorista-komunista tag, and even, the label bobotante.

This, to me, is how we know for sure that even the worst, most baseless false narratives, when un-addressed and un-dealt with, can and will fester. To the point that there is no curing it—not with the truth, and certainly not with the tools that are familiar.

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The recent Pulse Asia survey that shows the high approval ratings of the Duterte father and daughter should be reason for alarm for those of us who are: (1) on the side of democracy and freedom, justice and accountability, and (2) honest enough to admit we live in real fear of having a Duterte Version 2.0 (ala Trump Version 2.0) in 2028.

The old man Duterte himself has said, as have their propagandists, that Sara is worse than her father. I tend to believe them all. After all, if there’s anything we now know for sure, while she might not have the same kind of “charm” that her father did, she has built a powerful woman vibe, the kind that gets away with saying she imagined beheading the President; or that she will have him, his wife, and his cousin conditionally assassinated; the kind that gets away with saying she wants a bloodbath. The kind that went on stage at various 2025 local campaign sorties to publicly take down, with photos and videos, those she considered as “enemy”.

That she has approval numbers like this despite an impeachment she deserves, as does her father jailed and on trial for crimes against humanity and the thousands killed in the drug war, should be reason for alarm—and urgent, focused, strategic action—if we care at all about our freedoms.

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It could’ve been the fact that it was election year, but there was little reprieve from noise generated by social media all of 2016. It was like we turned a corner and didn’t know how to turn back.

Probably most distressing is that so many have fallen into the trap of celebrating Facebook likes and shares, equating this with relevant engagement, and insisting that this is “critical mass” and “public opinion.” Fake news sites are built on this premise, asserting relevance by producing un-sourced and un-bylined articles about issues that pro-government Facebook pages, personal and otherwise, are talking about.

These sites are of course shared with abandon, sold as a statement against the biases of mainstream media, and yet so obviously skewed to serve only the President and the government, like they can do no wrong. The push back of mainstream media and its supporters is just as noisy, asserting a moral high ground and insisting on policing the public, invoking protection from “hate” and “lies.” (more…)

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