It is no secret that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. won the 2022 Presidential elections through weaponizing social media. With the Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth, they were able to afford thousands of troll farms that continuously distribute lies on social media platforms especially Facebook. Their ill-gotten wealth is so filthy that they were even able to produce a trilogy film to rewrite history, turning them from the antagonists to victims of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolt. Sila pa ang naging bida! Yuck!
The lies keep evolving. From a story about Marcos, Sr. meeting Rizal – wow, same timeline? – the narrative has now turned into Bongbong’s a-good-many government programs and projects, how he has done so much for the Filipino only a year into office. What’s probably most scary is the fact that lies legitimize unconstitutional policies like the recently approved Maharlika Fund and the Kadiwa Program. Sadly, this is only a year into Marcos’ term. Who knows how much more gobbledygook he, his family, and their cronies will legitimize in the next few years.
As much as we rally to the streets and speak truth to power, we cannot change the Marcos narrative if we do not enter the disinformation space. Winning the next elections, let along defending our freedom and democracy, will henceforth mean power and control over social media.
To quote Filipina Nobel Peace Prize Laurette Maria Ressa, “We have coronavirus in the real world. Here in the information ecosystem, you have the virus of lies.”
We are victims of what Ressa calls the “virus of lies”. Like any victim of a virus, we are sick. We are ill. In the age of social media and disinformation, kalayaan—freedom in our native tongue—means to be free of this virus of lies. We need a cure. Only with a cure can we be free to live without the headache of Bongbong’s pronouncements and the violence of Sara Duterte, the Vice President.
Other countries have already advanced looking for a cure. Although they may be far from the ideal “freedom”, we can learn a lot from them. The many efforts and actions of oppositions all over the globe may well be studied to formulate an action plan to combat the virus of lies in the Philippines. Disinformation after all is not an isolated case.
Preventive Measures and Early Intervention
The law is reactive. This is a rule of thumb I often hear from lawyers. As opposed to this notion however, the Finnish Government conducted early interventions to disinformation. As early as 2014, Finland had already launched an anti-disinformation campaign in partnership with the United States. Finnish state officials diligently attended workshops and symposia with U.S. scholars to figure out how to prevent the widespread of disinformation. Concomitantly, Finland incorporated fact-based information into their education system. Critical thinking and spotting fake news became core competencies in pre-school and elementary levels. The subject on disinformation did not just become a special course or an extra-curricular activity a student needed to take in class, it became embedded in the overall education system of Finland.
Two things should be noted about Finland’s anti-disinformation effort. First, Finland did not really experience any social trigger for its lawmakers to act on the disinformation problem. Unlike the Philippines, Bongbong Marcos running for Vice President in 2016 was the trigger. It was the Marcoses show of force; that they still had a massive following that could earn them a seat in Malacañang. Finland did not experience such a trigger. With its history with the Soviet Union, Finland wanted a higher level of discernment among its public. Finland took disinformation seriously because it already predicted its potent potential to politicize the public.
Secondly, Finland solved its public’s lack and/or absence of spotting disinformation through its education system. Finnish state official, even if they already had powerful positions, remained humble and became participants in lectures, workshops, symposia, and fora.
Finland’s preventive framework is perhaps the most effective start against disinformation. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), disinformation can surely be produced and reproduced double, even triple, the scale it currently is. As early as now, the Philippine government and civil society should create measures that limit the use of AI for disinformation. As hard as it might seem, I believe it is possible.
Legislative Intervention
U.S. technology companies operating in Brazil aggressively campaigned against the Bill 2630 or the Fake News Bill of Brazil. Among its other alleged censorship provisions, the Bill will penalize firms for not reporting fake news. Just this May 2023, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, placed an anti-Bill 2630 advertisement on its search homepage and on YouTube. Upon hearing this, the Brazilian Supreme Court through justice minister, Flávio Dino, ordered Google to change the link on its homepage, emphasizing the company had two hours after notification or would face fines of 1M reais ($198,000) per hour it has not yet taken down the ad. Google had no choice but to promptly take down the link of the ad.
Although Bill 2630 has yet to become a law, the incident with Google proves that legislative intervention has a huge impact on disinformation. In a recent study of the Center for Liberalism & Democracy, it was proposed that one of the main action points to lessen and/or prevent the spread of disinformation was to hold tech-companies liable. Similar to Bill 2630, the Philippines needs this kind of provision. Like Brazil, the Philippines needs to address censorships concerns if it were to propose a Bill to hold tech-companies liable.
In the current Philippine Senate where there are three ex-convicts, pushing for a bill that holds tech-companies liable for the spread of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation seems impossible. Majority of the Senators today are beneficiaries of the widespread of disinformation. Creating a law that prevents them from benefiting from such just seems illogical to say the least. Then again, when have the majority floor of the current Philippine Senate become logical? If the oppositions wishes to pass some kind of progressive law against disinformation, then it has to be strategic. We cannot afford to put more power in the hands of our ex-convict Senators and their fellow criminals.
Civil Society and Speaking Truth to Power
Like the opposition leader Maria Leanor “Leni” Gerona Robredo in the Philippines during the 2022 elections, the Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu also lost the presidential race. However, compared to Robredo, Kilicdaroglu only lost by 4.28% of the votes. While Robredo ranked second in the presidential race, her votes lacked more than half of now President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Like Robredo, Kilicdaroglu’s campaign also anchored on radical love. The Turkish opposition was able to amass a great following among its citizens because of three other factors. First, Kilicdaroglu made close ties with six other political parties and created an alliance. Second, the opposition did not become merciful when it came to their opponent, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his economic crisis. Third, Kilicdaroglu already made it known that he would run ahead of the election period. These three things are what the Robredo campaign lacked in the previous elections. Add the defamation of disinformation towards her; surely, she would lose.
Compared to the Philippines and Turkey, Thailand’s opposition proves to be the best in the global battle against disinformation. In February 2022, the opposition was able to lobby and enact the Anti-Fake News Regulation. Although it gave its government power to censor information, the opposition was able to use it to its advantage. During the elections, the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) partnered with TikTok to monitor disinformation and communication streams during the elections. With this, TikTok launched an election center on the app which only communicated credible source. Paid political ads by influencers and regular users were banned for the time being. This partnership was brought by the attempts of Chinese tech-company ByteDance to de-credit reliable sources of information. ECT also partnered with other tech-companies prevalent in Thailand like Google and Line.
Interestingly, citizens of Thailand are not really Facebook users. Compared the people of the Philippines and Turkey, its battle against the virus of lies is much easier because it can easily hold the tech-companies in their country liable.
The efforts of the Thailand opposition bore fruit when Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of the progressive political party, Move-Forward Party, won the most seats in the Thailand Parliament. Now, he looks to become the next Prime Minister of the country.
Factual Fiction
From data being a fictional literary devices and AI portrayed in dystopian films as an adversary of mankind, we now face this reality—what was once fiction is now a fact of life. The disinformation ecosystem is real. It has not just challenged democracies but also the core values of nations around the world. AI has now become a tool electorate can weaponize. Like any other type of technology that was introduced to humans, disinformation and AI will only develop from hereon. The virus of lies is here. We need to find a cure.
We have a long road ahead of us in this fight for freedom. Like the Filipino Hunters ROTC guerillas during World War II, we must bolster our passion of freeing ourselves from the oppressor. Today our oppressor is digital technology infected with the virus of lies. The Marcoses and the Dutertes are the current faces of disinformation. In time, the faces of disinformation can change and replicate. To cure the disease, we must pin our efforts towards the suppression of the virus. Only with a longer-term plan can we truly be healed of this sickness.
We can learn a lot from other nations and their fight against this virus of lies but we must always contextualize what we have learned in the Philippine setting. Beyond proposed laws, civic society organizations, education campaign, our fight against disinformation begs these questions: What is the alternative dominant narrative? What narrative can we champion to debunk the Marcos-Duterte narrative?
Ang laban ngayon ay labanan ng naratibo. Sino ang mas may magandang kwento? The fight against disinformation is a fight of narratives and stories. We have yet to write the opposition’s.
