FAKE NEWS was most prevalent on Facebook (FB) during the midterm elections period, with losing Senate candidates Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon and Glenn Chong topping the list of those with false and misleading claims, the results of a collaborative fact-checking project showed.
Based on data analysis by Tsek.ph, a pioneering fact-checking project involving 11 news organizations and three universities, the opposition Senate team Otso Diretso was the top target of disinformation and misinformation in the run-up to the May 2019 elections.
Professors at the Journalism Department of the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman presented the results of the fact-checking project on Friday in a forum with representatives of the media, academe and journalism students.
The fact-checkers looked into 131 deceptive claims related to the elections that were made on both conventional and digital communication tools. Of these, 67 were posted on Facebook, 28 were made on television, eight on other social media networks, seven on their websites, five in campaign ads, three in the curriculum vitae of candidates, and 13 on other platforms.
“Facebook is clearly a favored platform for disinformation during the elections,” said Jake Soriano, a lecturer at the UP Journalism Department.
Specifically, the kind of disinformation that the fact-checkers looked at were fabricated ad manipulated information intended to influence voters and the public; those aimed to undermine opponents’ chances of winning; and information that used overblown, false or nonsensical claim in political advertisements, statements and speeches, explained journalism professor Ma. Diosa Labiste, also from UP.
A content analysis of the materials showed that 74 percent fall under the category of disinformation and 20 percent under misinformation.
Labiste said disinformation came mostly from Duterte-aligned candidates, and that most of the false claims favored administration candidates and attacked the President Rodrigo Duterte’s critics.
Yvonne Chua, a tenured UP professor and a journalist, said while it was difficult to establish if election-related disinformation propelled certain candidates to victory and crushed the chances of others, a pattern emerged from Tsek.ph data showed that those most targeted lost their bids.
Of all the Otso Diretso candidates, former senators Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd and Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino 4th, who registered strong showing in pre-election surveys, were hit the most by disinformation and misinformation, Chua noted.
Roxas was a frequent victim of repurposed photos, a common strategy used by disinformation creators. These included a photo of Roxas riding a “padyak” with a misleading caption criticizing the supposed gimmickry. That was an old photo taken during the run-up to the 2010 elections and not during the 2019 campaign as the post insinuated.
Roxas was also the subject of a false blog post claiming that he had left the opposition slate. The disinformation did not stop even after Roxas had lost the election when an old photo was altered showing him with a woman offering him a rope tied into noose. That fake photo already went viral on social media during the 2016 election and was repurposed for the 2019 polls.
Gadon and Chong, meanwhile, used their Facebook accounts to post false claims against pre-election surveys and research organizations Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations.
Labiste said “2022 will be no different from the 2019 elections, with the normalization of disinformation as part of election toolbox and the open misuse of social media.” She suggested that fact-checking become a habit not only by journalists, but also by the public at large.
Chua admitted that “fake news” had become problematic as it erodes trust in the media and it confuses the public about which information to trust or not.
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