THE camp of presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. hit back at online news network Rappler for its report on an alleged “network” of disinformation by supporters of the survey frontrunner.
The statement by Marcos’s spokesman Vic Rodriguez followed an announcement by Twitter Inc. that it had suspended more than 300 accounts promoting Marcos Jr., who has a dominant presence on social media, for allegedly violating its policies on platform manipulation and spam.
The majority of these social media accounts had already been taken down as part of routine actions before news website Rappler’s report on pro-Marcos Twitter handles, the company said. An investigation into the matter is ongoing, it added.
“With the Philippine elections taking place this May, we remain vigilant about identifying and eliminating suspected information campaigns targeting election conversations,” a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Reacting to Twitter’s move, Atty. Vic Rodriguez emailed this statement to media outlets:
“We commend Twitter for keeping a close watch against platform manipulation, spam and other attempts to undermine the public conversation through its operating system which are a violation of the Twitter rules.
“However, we would like to warn the Twitter management against an online news network which uses its platform to advance the political agenda of a certain presidential aspirant by using a disinformation network to take down what it alleged as disinformation network.
“While it is true that there could have been hundreds of Twitter accounts that were suspended, there is no certainty that all of them belong to the supporters of Bongbong Marcos.
“In fact, the information from a Twitter spokesperson did not even mention any account in Marcos network, nor the exact number of accounts, that were suspended.”
“Surprisingly,” noted Rodriguez, “It was only Rappler which categorically mentioned that those accounts suspended by Twitter were more than “300 accounts in Marcos network.”
How, he wondered aloud, “did Rappler know with absolute certainty? Unless it is part of those who perpetrated the disinformation.”
Marcos, who led last month’s presidential preference survey, has a dominant online presence. Independent fact-checker VERA Files said he benefited most from election-related disinformation last year. The late dictator’s son has said he doesn’t employ online trolls and isn’t boosting his social media pages. With a report by Bloomberg