Philippine troll armies set sights on US politics as Silicon Valley struggles to fight fake news

Philippine candidates and government officials pay vast online armies to create multiple fake social media accounts to smear opponents

And it could soon spread abroad, given Filipinos’ proficiency in English, facility with social media and the lure of money from campaigns

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In the Philippines, candidates and government officials routinely pay vast cyber-troll armies that create multiple fake social media accounts to smear opponents. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:00pm, 20 Nov 2019Updated: 7:05pm, 20 Nov 2019

As public anger mounted last year over delayed plans to shake up the Philippines’ outage-plagued telecommunications sector, angry comments and one-star ratings flooded a government-run Facebook page.

When employees suspected online trolls, President Rodrigo Duterte’s digital mastermind offered a solution.

“I’ll handle this,” said Nic Gabunada, the architect of the social media strategy that powered Duterte’s 2016 election victory, according to a government employee who managed the Facebook page.

Pro-Duterte comments soon poured onto the page, with users defending the president’s handling of the situation or blaming the problems on the previous administration. Many of the new commenters had only basic profile information on their pages, which featured mostly generic posts with religious or pro-government messages.

“It was Nic,” said the employee, who was interviewed on the condition her name not be used for fear of retribution. “The fact that he had a troll army was known by everyone, but not openly talked about.”

In the Philippines, candidates and government officials routinely pay vast cyber-troll armies that create multiple fake social media accounts to smear opponents and prop themselves up. It’s all part of the online propaganda wars shaking politics in the country.

And it could soon be migrating to the US, according to election officials and disinformation scholars who are watching closely. They warn that the Philippine epidemic probably will spread, given Filipinos’ proficiency in English, facility with social media and the lure of money from campaigns looking for a new way to get an edge over the competition.