Fake news in the Philippines
What's about to play out at this courthouse in manila surely looks to some like a story of how the mighty can fall. When fake news takes flight police keeping an eye on the crowds who are keeping an eye out for senator laila de lima once the justice secretary of the philippines the chair of the human rights commission now. She's a prisoner. This is as serious as it. Looks de lima back to jail. After another court appearance and as always it's a frenzy. The woman who once went after drug lords is now facing charges of taking money from drug lords. She could be jailed for life. Her lawyers are certainly nervous. What is your biggest worry for her right now. Your biggest fear well her safety. Her security is our biggest concern right now. This is a test to the judicial branch of the government. This is a test case. It's really rule of law and due process is working here in the philippines in the philippines of rodrigo duterte. This should be no surprise. The president has been perfectly clear what he had planned for. The woman who has publicly and persistently criticized him and his drug war killing is killing no matter what he must be held criminally liable senator de lima. It was your greed and your immorality. That did you win one day soon. I will be taught in public if i were dilemma. Ladies and gentlemen i'll hang myself. Obviously duterte cannot stand her but does that make the allegations against her false. It's hard for filipinos to know what to believe daily. They are bombarded with salacious tales about duterte's critics and about de lima in particular obama calls de lima abnormal de lima resigns de lima on suicide watch. Her son caught with drugs. Her sister arrested for drug trafficking. All startling stories suggesting the woman is a guilty mess but all of them are fake completely made up headlines on made-up news sites. The problem is that's not immediately obvious. Are they both real. They're both fake. I think they're both fake. It's real or yeah it is about the limit is sometimes i feel like it's fake a digital global survey last year found that filipinos spend more time per day on social media than anyone else in the world even though the internet they access is a little tricky.
Your internet here on the phone is it fast or is it slow. True mobile internet here is among the slowest and most expensive in all of asia so watching videos or clicking on links just eats up data but facebook is free filipinos can and do scroll through it all day long that means seeing all those fake stories embedded in their timelines but fact checking those stories forget it that means spending more money on more data. Can you always tell by looking at the at the headline if it's real or fake no you have to. But why would you do that. If it's going to cost you money to open it you won't open it. What do you think this does to your democracy. All this fake news they can manipulate the minds of the people into believing something that is not real. Do you think that's happening now. Politicians have been quick to gamble. That people will believe what they read. This is wrapping a social media. News outlet run by maria ressa. Her team has been studying online networks that were dispatched to fire up support for duterte and shut down his critics. They found a potent trail of real enthusiasm fake stories and blistering attacks the campaign network. Its first goal was to elect duterte as president. It succeeded in doing that by july. It had shifted so after he won what happens next right. We saw several groups and people being attacked the first group being attacked were traditional media. The second she says was a series of attacks on duterte's critics de lima was in the sights fast when word leaked she was having an affair with her driver which was true. Suddenly all other accusations were painted as plausible too overnight. We watched her turn from being the head of the commission on human rights. This former justice secretary now a senator who did quite well to becoming a drug lord i mean that's how the hyperbole spread and we watched her online get stripped of her dignity you had a congressional hearing where senators most of them men joked about her love life and this just went to extremes on social media ressa and her team tracked the bulk of the pro duterte online campaigns to three core accounts that together reach millions of followers these were the three content they called their research the weaponization of the internet and once it was published ressa says she started receiving 90 hate messages an hour for a month rape threats death threats lots of intimidation if you do not believe in us you do not deserve to exist but their work and their research continues including a look at one of the most significant pro-duterte accounts in the philippines.
She's the anchor account for the propaganda machine. She's the anchor account she's a woman named mocha uson the blogger in that t-shirt showing senator de lima's prison picture this is also mocha with her group. The mocha girls. She's had a curious. Trajectory sex blogger singer turned government appointed member of the movie and tv classification board the duterte dance somewhat of a fixture at her concerts. Here's what you need to know. Uh about boca usa in the philippines. She is huge in a way. Think of the online reach of kim kardashian. Now imagine if kim kardashian got a job with the government got it that is fiercely loyal to the president sometimes traveling alongside him on foreign visits always writing in support of him to her 5 million followers just before the concert. We sat down in a salon across the street from the club to talk about what gets shared online. And why. Hey i'm adrian. Just hours earlier she'd reposted an article about senator de lima with a pretty extraordinary claim from the speaker of the house. It says the country's number one drug lord is already jailed and you posted this right. This is from your account.
Oh yes yeah. I shared that. Do you really think she is. The senator is the number one drug lord in the philippines drug lord protector. But that's not what that says says the country's number one drug award i quoted the uh i quoted the speaker of the house right. Do you think some people are going to read. That and think well mocha thinks. She's the number one drug lord in the country. It must be so well. I just posted that because that's what the uh speaker of the house said. Do you believe that though. Oh yes i believe so you you believe that. She's the number one drug lord yeah one of one of the big drug lords for now she is the number one. And i'm sticking to that you're sticking to that so this is going to make a lot of people angry. It's going to divide a lot of people. A number of people are going to say. This is just a flat out lie. Maybe but if you read the comments majority they would agree. They would agree it was. That's how they feel as we spoke mocha's manager recorded the interview by evening's end. They'd edited a chunk to music and posted it including a part where she urged. We do more research. I think you should do more research because i am getting the feeling that you see delena as innocent as an innocent person i i don't know what you need to do more research family because the filipinos know who the lima is. So please madam do your research. Hundreds of thousands of views thousands of shares and comments plenty of digs at us blind lazy puppets of the oligarchs which is all absolutely fine. People can say what they want. Those who side with senator de lima though would argue the efforts to silence her are extraordinary. Human rights watch is clear it thinks the drug charges against her are politically motivated. But the thing is that's just a theory. The courts have yet to decide her guilt or innocence. And until then she's in detention which is where we caught up with her. No cameras no microphones allowed but they let us in to visit her.
She's held in the same facility with some of those she once put away. It's either justice or a complete betrayal of justice so that took a little while there was a class in there of her supporters and friends. It was really for her. It happens twice a week. It's interesting. She's isolated in that jail because she's the only woman in there the whole point of the mass. Interestingly enough was about the truth a lot of time was spent talking about the death of truth in this culture and they feel in this country at the moment and she got a chance to write a quick note to that effect and the essence of that note social media must stop being an instrument of lies deceptions and oppression. She wrote adding it can truly be a powerful tool for change genuine and positive change optimistic thoughts from a woman with not many reasons to be optimistic. She continues to return to court to try to get the charges thrown out but has had no success and there's no option for bail either senator lyla de lima could be in legal limbo for years a resolution as elusive as hard facts in the philippines adrian. Arsenault cbc news manila.
Your internet here on the phone is it fast or is it slow. True mobile internet here is among the slowest and most expensive in all of asia so watching videos or clicking on links just eats up data but facebook is free filipinos can and do scroll through it all day long that means seeing all those fake stories embedded in their timelines but fact checking those stories forget it that means spending more money on more data. Can you always tell by looking at the at the headline if it's real or fake no you have to. But why would you do that. If it's going to cost you money to open it you won't open it. What do you think this does to your democracy. All this fake news they can manipulate the minds of the people into believing something that is not real. Do you think that's happening now. Politicians have been quick to gamble. That people will believe what they read. This is wrapping a social media. News outlet run by maria ressa. Her team has been studying online networks that were dispatched to fire up support for duterte and shut down his critics. They found a potent trail of real enthusiasm fake stories and blistering attacks the campaign network. Its first goal was to elect duterte as president. It succeeded in doing that by july. It had shifted so after he won what happens next right. We saw several groups and people being attacked the first group being attacked were traditional media. The second she says was a series of attacks on duterte's critics de lima was in the sights fast when word leaked she was having an affair with her driver which was true. Suddenly all other accusations were painted as plausible too overnight. We watched her turn from being the head of the commission on human rights. This former justice secretary now a senator who did quite well to becoming a drug lord i mean that's how the hyperbole spread and we watched her online get stripped of her dignity you had a congressional hearing where senators most of them men joked about her love life and this just went to extremes on social media ressa and her team tracked the bulk of the pro duterte online campaigns to three core accounts that together reach millions of followers these were the three content they called their research the weaponization of the internet and once it was published ressa says she started receiving 90 hate messages an hour for a month rape threats death threats lots of intimidation if you do not believe in us you do not deserve to exist but their work and their research continues including a look at one of the most significant pro-duterte accounts in the philippines.
She's the anchor account for the propaganda machine. She's the anchor account she's a woman named mocha uson the blogger in that t-shirt showing senator de lima's prison picture this is also mocha with her group. The mocha girls. She's had a curious. Trajectory sex blogger singer turned government appointed member of the movie and tv classification board the duterte dance somewhat of a fixture at her concerts. Here's what you need to know. Uh about boca usa in the philippines. She is huge in a way. Think of the online reach of kim kardashian. Now imagine if kim kardashian got a job with the government got it that is fiercely loyal to the president sometimes traveling alongside him on foreign visits always writing in support of him to her 5 million followers just before the concert. We sat down in a salon across the street from the club to talk about what gets shared online. And why. Hey i'm adrian. Just hours earlier she'd reposted an article about senator de lima with a pretty extraordinary claim from the speaker of the house. It says the country's number one drug lord is already jailed and you posted this right. This is from your account.
Oh yes yeah. I shared that. Do you really think she is. The senator is the number one drug lord in the philippines drug lord protector. But that's not what that says says the country's number one drug award i quoted the uh i quoted the speaker of the house right. Do you think some people are going to read. That and think well mocha thinks. She's the number one drug lord in the country. It must be so well. I just posted that because that's what the uh speaker of the house said. Do you believe that though. Oh yes i believe so you you believe that. She's the number one drug lord yeah one of one of the big drug lords for now she is the number one. And i'm sticking to that you're sticking to that so this is going to make a lot of people angry. It's going to divide a lot of people. A number of people are going to say. This is just a flat out lie. Maybe but if you read the comments majority they would agree. They would agree it was. That's how they feel as we spoke mocha's manager recorded the interview by evening's end. They'd edited a chunk to music and posted it including a part where she urged. We do more research. I think you should do more research because i am getting the feeling that you see delena as innocent as an innocent person i i don't know what you need to do more research family because the filipinos know who the lima is. So please madam do your research. Hundreds of thousands of views thousands of shares and comments plenty of digs at us blind lazy puppets of the oligarchs which is all absolutely fine. People can say what they want. Those who side with senator de lima though would argue the efforts to silence her are extraordinary. Human rights watch is clear it thinks the drug charges against her are politically motivated. But the thing is that's just a theory. The courts have yet to decide her guilt or innocence. And until then she's in detention which is where we caught up with her. No cameras no microphones allowed but they let us in to visit her.
She's held in the same facility with some of those she once put away. It's either justice or a complete betrayal of justice so that took a little while there was a class in there of her supporters and friends. It was really for her. It happens twice a week. It's interesting. She's isolated in that jail because she's the only woman in there the whole point of the mass. Interestingly enough was about the truth a lot of time was spent talking about the death of truth in this culture and they feel in this country at the moment and she got a chance to write a quick note to that effect and the essence of that note social media must stop being an instrument of lies deceptions and oppression. She wrote adding it can truly be a powerful tool for change genuine and positive change optimistic thoughts from a woman with not many reasons to be optimistic. She continues to return to court to try to get the charges thrown out but has had no success and there's no option for bail either senator lyla de lima could be in legal limbo for years a resolution as elusive as hard facts in the philippines adrian. Arsenault cbc news manila.