Fact-Finding Mission: Impact of Online Disinformation in Elections and Democracy in the Philippines

Fact-Finding Mission: Impact of Online Disinformation in Elections and Democracy in the Philippines

In August 2022, APHR organized a fact-finding mission in the Philippines to assess the proliferation of online disinformation during the 2022  election and its impact on electoral integrity and democracy. This was the first in a series of three missions that are part of the APHR’s commitment to the Internet Freedom Initiative together with Article-19 and its partners.

IFI aims to promote online freedom of expression and access to information, support civil society, influence government policies, and build collaborative networks among diverse stakeholders.

Three parliamentarians from Southeast Asia formed the Mission’s delegation and visited Metro Manila for three days to meet with government officials, parliamentarians, civil society organizations, journalists, academes, and election experts. The delegates of the mission were Hon. Maria Chin Abdullah, Member of Parliament from Malaysia; Hon. Kelvin Yii, Member of Parliament from Malaysia; and Hon. Pannika Wanich, former member of Parliament from Thailand.

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ASEAN governments must stop using ‘lawfare’ against critics, Southeast Asian MPs say

ASEAN governments must stop using ‘lawfare’ against critics, Southeast Asian MPs say

MANILA – The Philippines, as well as other ASEAN member states, must immediately halt the use of judicial harassment and politically-motivated charges against critics and political opponents, a phenomenon known as ‘lawfare’, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said today at a press conference held in Manila.

We call on Southeast Asian authorities to stop abusing the legal system to stifle dissent and urge ASEAN to reprimand member states that continue to use lawfare to attack political opposition. The Philippine government can take the first step by dropping all charges against Walden Bello and immediately releasing Senator Leila De Lima and any others that have been unjustly detained due to politically-motivated charges,” said Mercy Barends, Chairperson of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.

The press conference, titled “Stop Lawfare! No to the Weaponization of the Law and State-sponsored Violence,” was organized by APHR and the Walden Bello Legal Defense Committee, in solidarity with Walden Bello, an APHR Board Member and former Member of Parliament in the Philippines. Bello is facing politically-motivated charges of cyber-libel brought by a former Davao City information officer who now works as chief of the Media and Public Relations Division of the Office of the Vice President, Sara Duterte.

There have been many other victims of lawfare in the Philippines, including Senator Leila de Lima, who was arrested in February 2017 on trumped-up drug charges, shortly after she had launched a Senate investigation into the extrajudicial killings committed under the Rodrigo Duterte administration. She has remained in detention ever since, still waiting for her trial, despite the fact that several key witnesses have recanted their testimonies.

Lawfare is very common in the Philippines, but is happening everywhere in Southeast Asia and beyond. Governments in the region are using ambiguous laws to prosecute political opponents, government critics, and activists. This weaponizing of the legal system is alarming and incredibly damaging to freedom of expression. It creates an atmosphere of fear that not only silences  those who are targeted by such “lawfare” but also makes anyone who may want to criticize those in power think twice,” said  Charles Santiago, APHR Co-chairperson and former Malaysian Member of Parliament.

In Myanmar and Cambodia, for example, laws on treason and terrorism have been weaponized to crush opposition. The most tragic example took place in July last year, with the execution of four prominent Myanmar activists on bogus terrorism charges by the Myanmar junta. Those were the first judicial executions in decades, and provide an extreme example of how the law can be perverted by authoritarian regimes to cement their power, APHR has denounced. In Cambodia, members of the opposition are sentenced to lengthy jail terms on fabricated charges simply for exercising their right to freedom of speech.

Meanwhile, defamation laws are among the most often used for lawfare in Thailand, where, contrary to many other countries, it might be regarded as a criminal offense, rather than just a civil offense. Sections 326–328 of the Thai Criminal Code establish several defamation offenses with sentences of up to two years’ imprisonment and fines of up to 200,000 Thai Baht (approximately USD 6,400).

I think we, as parliamentarians, should do our utmost in our respective countries to repeal, or at least amend, these kinds of laws. Our democracies depend on it. But I also think that we cannot do it alone. We need to work together across borders, share experiences with parliamentarians from other countries and stand in solidarity with those who fall victim to them, because, ultimately, we are all on the same boat,” said Rangsiman Rome, Member of the Thai Parliament, and APHR member.

Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia call for urgent action against the scourge of disinformation

Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia call for urgent action against the scourge of disinformation

MANILA – We, Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia, concerned with the spread of disinformation in our region and its deleterious effect on democracy and human rights, have visited the Philippines, often described as the “patient zero” of the disinformation pandemic, in order to study this phenomenon, meet stakeholders who have been victimized by it and seek effective ways to combat it.

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has conducted a Fact-finding Mission to the Philippines with two sitting members of parliament from Malaysia, Maria Chin Abdullah and Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen, and a former representative from Thailand, Pannika Wanich. The mission has served to throw light on the fact that disinformation not only endangers elections, but democracy at large.

Disinformation campaigns in the Philippines are often state-sanctioned, targeting members of the opposition, journalists, human rights defenders, and activists. 

These campaigns pose a direct threat to democracy because they are based in blanket accusations that generate extreme polarization by leveling down social complexities and imposing absolute dichotomies between enemies and friends, thus eliminating pluralism and the conditions for civilized dialogue, the cornerstones of a healthy democratic life. This has been shown clearly in the Philippines during the most recently held elections, when the widespread practice of “red-tagging”, accusations of links with the Communist insurgency, were used as weapons against political enemies, often leading to dire consequences.

“Disinformation often generates hatred, especially against vulnerable groups such as women. These campaigns are often strongly misogynistic, pandering to the worst societal prejudices against women and marginalized communities. The fight against disinformation is also the fight for equality and social justice, and civil society organizations fighting for the rights of women, LGBT communities and other vulnerable groups should play a prominent role in combating this problem,” said Ms. Chin Abdullah, also a member of APHR.

Disinformation thrives in environments where mainstream media, the traditional watchdog of those in power, has been widely discredited, and social media prevails as the main source of information. In the Philippines, 68% of the country’s population have regular access to the Internet, and there are over 92 million recorded social media users making the county a real battleground for disinformation. Filipinos are also more active on social media than their counterparts in any other Southeast Asian country, averaging 255 minutes of social media use per day.

The algorithms used by the social media giants generate “echo chambers” where users only find confirmation of their biases and are rarely exposed to contrasting opinions. In social media there are no journalistic standards, and opinions and facts mingle to the point of being indistinguishable. That makes the work of fact-checkers extremely important, but they can barely tackle the problem. As one of the participants said during a roundtable in our fact-finding mission, “fact-checking is five times slower than fake news.”

“The Philippine Parliament is urged to play an important role to investigate allegations of state-sanctioned disinformation campaigns and troll farms, and review or consider policies to monitor the social media giants and make them accountable while protecting people’s data privacy. But any legislation introduced as a way of tackling the disinformation pandemic should be limited and handled with extreme care, as it could be easily turned into censorship in the hands of authoritarian regimes, and it should never impinge on freedom of expression,” said Ms. Wanich.

Nevertheless, APHR welcomes initiatives to address the issue such as the formation of Task Force Kontra (Against) Fake News by the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC). We urge them to ensure transparency and table the results of such efforts in Parliament and make the reports public. 

Throughout the fact-finding mission, it was often repeated that disinformation in the context of elections began long before the campaign period. It was revealed that organized and coordinated campaigns of political disinformation had been going on for years before the latest polls, amid a backdrop of impunity and censorship. When stakeholders started to take action against this phenomenon, there was a realization that it was already too late and the extent of disinformation had already been well-entrenched.

“The disinformation pandemic, in the Philippines and beyond, is too big to be addressed with piecemeal measures. It is necessary to find both a vaccine and a cure that work on a massive scale. The fight against disinformation must be part of national agendas everywhere with governments, civil society, and media rowing in the same direction. These agendas should include campaigns of voters’ education, media literacy programs, well-calibrated legislation, and fact-checking initiatives,” said Mr. Yii Lee Wuen.

Southeast Asian MPs call on President Marcos to prioritize human rights and strengthen democracy in the Philippines

Southeast Asian MPs call on President Marcos to prioritize human rights and strengthen democracy in the Philippines

JAKARTA – As President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is due to be sworn into office today in the Philippines, lawmakers from Southeast Asia urge him to respect human rights and restore rule of law and democracy after their erosion during the term of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte. 

After the polls, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) stated that the election of Marcos as President and Sara Duterte, daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, as Vice-President did not bode well for the restoration of rule of law and respect for human rights in the country. The Marcos family has never acknowledged the atrocities committed during the dictatorship of their patriarch, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who was ousted from power by a massive popular uprising in 1986.

President Rodrigo Duterte has been accused of human rights violations since his tenure as Mayor in Davao City, and after being elected President, thousands of Filipinos were killed in his infamous ‘war on drugs’. The International Criminal Court has started a preliminary investigation against Duterte for possible crimes against humanity brought about by his drug war.

Meanwhile, in the latest blow to media freedom, the news site Rappler has been ordered to be shut down by the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on 28 June 2022. Rappler’s founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Maria Ressa, is one of the staunchest critics of President Duterte’s war on drugs. The recent order is yet another assault on press freedom with the closure of the country’s largest broadcast television network ABS-CBN in 2020, and the Philippines being one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists. 

“We hope to be proven wrong and that President Marcos Jr. will put an end to this climate of impunity and chart a different course of action that upholds human rights, press freedom,and the rule of law in the Philippines. In a region beset with challenges and undergoing an authoritarian turn it is high time that the Philippines re-emerges as the leader on democracy and human rights that it once was,” said Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament from Malaysia and APHR Chairperson.

As first steps to show his commitment to human rights, the new President should appoint qualified, credible, and independent members of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) through a transparent and consultative process, and order the immediate release of the unjustly jailed Senator Leila de Lima, said APHR.

The CHR is an independent body mandated under the 1987 Philippine Constitution to investigate human rights violations in the country. The President appoints its members for a fixed term of seven years. The current appointees ended their term last May 2022.

Senator Leila de Lima was arrested in February 2017, shortly after she had launched a Senate investigation on the extrajudicial killings committed as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, and has been unjustly detained for more than five years on politically motivated charges.

One of the three charges against De Lima has been dismissed for lack of evidence, while several key witnesses of the prosecution have retracted their testimonies stating that they were coerced to testify and threatened by the Police and high-level government officials to falsely implicate her. It is clear that the charges were fabricated, and there is no basis for her detention, so she should be immediately and unconditionally released, said APHR.

“We believe that democratic institutions in the Philippines need to be strengthened and respect for human rights restored, and that should be the priority of the new administration. We will be closely monitoring the policies of President Marcos, and we are ready to work with civil society and human rights organizations in the Philippines to hold him and his government accountable,” said Santiago.

Disinformation poses a grave threat to democracy in the Philippines

Disinformation poses a grave threat to democracy in the Philippines

By Mu Sochua.

According to a story widely circulated on Philippine social media, Ferdinand Marcos Sr, the late dictator who imposed a brutal regime of martial law on the country between 1972 and 1986, owed his immense fortune to the payment of 192,000 tons of gold by the Tallano royal family of the Maharlika Kingdom for his legal services.

There is a problem with this account; there is not a shred of truth in it. The Maharlika Kingdom and the Tallano family never existed. Marcos’ fortune is better explained by rampant corruption and the plundering of the state coffers during his years in power, as several court cases in the country and abroad have demonstrated.

This is one of the stories that makes a huge campaign of disinformation aimed at whitewashing the Marcos regime, ahead of the Philippines’ upcoming general elections on May 9, in which Marcos Sr.’s son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, is running for the presidency. The campaign portrays the Marcos  dictatorship as a “golden age” for the Philippines and makes other fantastical claims, such as that the country was then the third richest economy in the world.

The strategy seems to be working. Bongbong Marcos heads all the opinion polls in the run-up to the elections, and the Marcos Dynasty seems to be poised to return to Malacañang, the Presidential Palace in Manila.

As elsewhere, social media is a powerful political tool in the Philippines. Sixty-eight percent of the country’s population have regular access to the Internet, and there are over 92 million recorded social media users, albeit this number does not necessarily represent individual ones. Filipinos are more active on social media than their counterparts in any other Southeast Asian country, averaging 255 minutes per day. All of this makes the country fertile ground for online campaigns of disinformation.

One month before the polls, Facebook’s parent company Meta announced that it had taken down up to 400 accounts from the Philippines that were engaging in “malicious activities” ahead of the May election. This is not new. Three years ago, Facebook announced the removal of at least 200 pages of coordinated “inauthentic behavior” linked to a network organized by the social media manager of President Rodrigo Duterte’s electoral campaign. His daughter, Sara Duterte, is now the running mate of Marcos, and commands a similarly large lead in the race for the vice presidency.

There are indications that these disinformation campaigns are part of a long-term plan to bring the Marcoses back to power. The creation of new pro-Marcos pages, many coming from troll farms and fake accounts, began to increase in 2014. Around the same time, the flamboyant Imelda Marcos, widow of the late dictator and mother of Bongbong Marcos, announced at her 85th birthday dinner party that she wanted her son to run for president.

More recently, authentic and fake accounts have been used on a massive scale to spread misleading or fake information regarding the presidential candidates, the issues at stake in the elections, or the electoral process itself. An instance of the latter is the false claim that it is necessary to pass a negative RT-PCR test to be able to vote, something that it clearly aimed at discouraging people from casting their ballots. This is creating an environment in which it is increasingly difficult for many voters to know what is true and what is not, making it all the more difficult to make an informed decision at the polling station.

And not all disinformation campaigns are as relatively innocuous as the story of the mythical “Maharlika Kingdom.” Disinformation campaigns in which the victims are accused of having links with the communist insurgency of the New People’s Army, a tactic known as “red-tagging” in the Philippines, have risen alarmingly, as the regional organization ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) has documented.

The consequences of these kinds of campaigns are often dire. Not only are they bound to have a significant impact on the elections, but they have resulted in harassment, attacks, disappearances, and even murders, according to a 2020 United Nations report on the Philippines.

The spread of disinformation online for political purposes is not a phenomenon exclusive to the Philippines, of course. Conspiracy theories like QAnon have helped poison the public debate in the United States; in Myanmar, Facebook was turned into a propaganda tool by ultra-nationalists to voice anti-Muslim rhetoric, contributing to extreme violence against the Rohingya minority; it has helped the far-right to make inroads in several European countries; and, more recently, it has been used by the Russian government to justify its brutal invasion of Ukraine in the eyes of its population.

At the core of this problem is the social media giants’ business model, whose content curation algorithms are designed for clicks and attention, so that users’ data can be sold to advertisers for enormous profits. Yet, too often what grabs our attention is sensationalism and outrage rather than fact-based information, thus allowing disinformation, extremism, and division to be massively amplified.

In order to face the challenge that these campaigns pose to democracy, it is necessary that social media giants like Facebook, TikTok, Twitter are made bound to a new set of rules and standards that prevent them from profiting off public harm and instead protect the public interest. Policymakers and lawmakers must start with establishing new data rights protections, requiring transparency in political advertising on these platforms, and adopting measures to combat hate speech.

This should be done in parallel with education programs to empower internet users to verify facts, identify false information and stop it from spreading, and support public service journalism so we can all operate and debate on the same set of accurate facts.

As challenging as it may seem, the phenomenon of disinformation campaigns should be addressed thoroughly in order for democracy to survive, in the Philippines as elsewhere. In the words of the Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Rappler and recipient of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, “you cannot have integrity of elections if you don’t have integrity of facts. If they make the facts debatable they are essentially dooming our nation.”

Mu Sochua is a Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) and a former Member of Parliament in Cambodia.

This article first appeared in The Diplomat.