Asian journalists were among the first media to investigate the role of social media in politics with some excellent reporting by the reporters of Rappler. South China Morning Post and ASEAN Today, whose work forms the basis of this compilation.
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WAS THE ELECTION of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte a test case for Cambridge Analytica, the British political consulting firm that helped elect Donald Trump?
Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines, I have often wondered why a people -- who faced down tanks to rid themselves of a powerful decades-long dictator in a bloodless revolution -- would allow themselves to again be ruled by another strongman.
The answer may be in the palm of one's hand - the everpresent smartphone, which seems to in the hip pocket or purse of everyone in the Philippines -- from the high-powered executives in Makati to the street vendors selling all kinds of knick-knacks and snacks to drivers stalled in traffic jams -- who are, more than likely, checking out their own messages, tweets and instant photos while sitting behind the wheel of their cars.
The answer may be in the palm of one's hand - the everpresent smartphone, which seems to in the hip pocket or purse of everyone in the Philippines -- from the high-powered executives in Makati to the street vendors selling all kinds of knick-knacks and snacks to drivers stalled in traffic jams -- who are, more than likely, checking out their own messages, tweets and instant photos while sitting behind the wheel of their cars.
Philippines National Privacy Commission said Friday (April 13) it sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg following statements he's made in front of two U.S. Congressional committees investigating the data breach that may have affected 87 million people worldwide.
"We are launching an investigation into Facebook to determine whether there is unauthorized processing of personal data of Filipinos, and other possible violations of the Data Privacy Act of 2012," an excerpt of the letter sent to Zuckerberg reads.
"We are launching an investigation into Facebook to determine whether there is unauthorized processing of personal data of Filipinos, and other possible violations of the Data Privacy Act of 2012," an excerpt of the letter sent to Zuckerberg reads.
Six months before Trump upset favorite Hillary Clinton in the U.S. elections, Cambridge Analytica was busy in the Philippines on behalf of the often crude, plain-speaking Duterte, a mayor of a city from the Philippine hinterlands.
Duterte said Friday it was "insane" for him to hire Cambridge Analytica just to win in the 2016 presidential elections. "Why would I pay those fools from Cambridge [Analytica] to work for my presidential campaign? I would have lost had I done that," Duterte said.
"Son of a b#@%. Had I paid you? I would have lost. That's not true. That's insane," he exclaimed in his typical forthright style.
Nevertheless, last week the South China Morning Post published a photo of members of Duterte's campaign team dining with Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix.
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| Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte |
In a post by Facebook's Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer on April 4, he said that about 1,175,870 Filipino users may have had their Facebook information improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, the same firm used a year later in the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
Alexander Nix (remember that name, he comes up later in the post) former CEO of Cambridge Analytica, proudly stated in this year that his firm "ran all of (Donald Trump's) digital campaign" We all know what that led to -- one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history when Trump beat heavily-favored Hillary Clinton. Nix was forced to resign when he was tape-recorded trying to bribe and entrap a client's opponent with prostitutes.
The Philippines is only behind the U.S. in terms of the number of people whose data was compromised, according to Rappler.
The Philippines, perhaps the country most plugged into the Internet, was a perfect lab for the consulting firm to try out its online strategies for its client.
A report, called "Digital in 2017," done by social media management platform Hootsuite, showed that Filipinos spend the most time on social media in the world -- an average of 4 hours and 17 minutes per day on social media sites such as Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter.
The data were based on active monthly user data from social media companies as recent as Jan. 2017.
In comparison, U.S. social media users averaged only 2 hours and 6 seconds per day, according to the report. The least active—the Japanese—logged on to social media an average of 40 minutes per day.
Another way to look at it: Filipinos spend 53 hours on social media in a week, 11 hours more than the global average of 42 hours.
Half of the Filipino population is active on Facebook, says ASEAN Today.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Before Cambridge Analytica's Philippine incursion, in 2015 Duterte had already began his own social media assault. He hired Nic Gabunada, a marketing consultant, and gave him a $200,000 budget to generate a strong social media following for his quest for the presidency.
Duterte’s propaganda machine used fake social media accounts to disperse false information. according to ASEAN Today. In the latter half of 2015, pro-Duterte posts and hashtags swept across social media. Four days after he declared his candidacy, over 700 tweets a minute mentioned Duterte. If this was a spike that would naturally occur when breaking news occurs, it would have happened when he initially announced his decision to run.
One of them, linked to groups whose members number over 2.8 million as of early October, is a certain "Mutya Bautista", a supposed software analyst at ABS-CBN. She uses the profile picture of pop star Im Yoona of Girl’s Generation, a South Korean Kpop group, and has ties to over 160 groups – the biggest of which is BongBong Marcos United at over 160,000 members, and other overseas Filipino workers groups like Pinoy OFW sa UAE with over 67,000 members.
Many times, American journalists who criticize the Duterte regime especially his extrajudicial war on drugs are often targeted by Duterte's "keyboard army" along the lines of the tweets received by Sean Williams who wrote in The New Republic: “Maybe u are anti-Duterte TROLL,” tweeted a poster named Madelyn. “A foreigner who knows NOTHING bout my country.” She seemed to devote her waking hours to spreading her love of Duterte and assailing anyone who questioned him, posting dozens of times a day. “My President and I am proud of him,” one tweet read. “Get lost critics!”
The army of pro-Duterte trollers gives the false impression of the strongman's popularity that manifested itself into the movement that led to Duterte's 2016 election victory and continues to give him the power to wage his largely condemned war on drugs, threaten journalists (the Philippines is the most deadliest country for journalists) and insult President Barack Obama without suffering any political consequences.
About a year before the Philippine Presidential election, CA's CEO Nix, also director of SCL, was in Manila.
Former journalist and now Presidential Communications Undersecretary Joel Egco covered Nix’s visit for the Manila Times. The article said Nix was in the country “for a research.”
As they did in the U.S., Cambridge Analytica mined data from Facebook to target sets of voters by their personalities and behavior. The information was then used to target Facebook users on content specifically tailored for them.
“If you know the personality of the people you’re targeting, you can nuance your messaging to resonate more effectively with those key groups," said Nix said in a 2016 speech.
Alexander Nix (remember that name, he comes up later in the post) former CEO of Cambridge Analytica, proudly stated in this year that his firm "ran all of (Donald Trump's) digital campaign" We all know what that led to -- one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history when Trump beat heavily-favored Hillary Clinton. Nix was forced to resign when he was tape-recorded trying to bribe and entrap a client's opponent with prostitutes.
The Philippines is only behind the U.S. in terms of the number of people whose data was compromised, according to Rappler.
The Philippines, perhaps the country most plugged into the Internet, was a perfect lab for the consulting firm to try out its online strategies for its client.
A report, called "Digital in 2017," done by social media management platform Hootsuite, showed that Filipinos spend the most time on social media in the world -- an average of 4 hours and 17 minutes per day on social media sites such as Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter.
The data were based on active monthly user data from social media companies as recent as Jan. 2017.
In comparison, U.S. social media users averaged only 2 hours and 6 seconds per day, according to the report. The least active—the Japanese—logged on to social media an average of 40 minutes per day.
Another way to look at it: Filipinos spend 53 hours on social media in a week, 11 hours more than the global average of 42 hours.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Before Cambridge Analytica's Philippine incursion, in 2015 Duterte had already began his own social media assault. He hired Nic Gabunada, a marketing consultant, and gave him a $200,000 budget to generate a strong social media following for his quest for the presidency.
Duterte’s propaganda machine used fake social media accounts to disperse false information. according to ASEAN Today. In the latter half of 2015, pro-Duterte posts and hashtags swept across social media. Four days after he declared his candidacy, over 700 tweets a minute mentioned Duterte. If this was a spike that would naturally occur when breaking news occurs, it would have happened when he initially announced his decision to run.
Filipino social media is saturated with false information and fake accounts, according to Rappler.
Many accounts mentioning Duterte had the same suspicious traits. They had a small number of online friends and used a profile picture which did not belong to them. They also liked pro-Duterte and pro-Marcos groups.
One of them, linked to groups whose members number over 2.8 million as of early October, is a certain "Mutya Bautista", a supposed software analyst at ABS-CBN. She uses the profile picture of pop star Im Yoona of Girl’s Generation, a South Korean Kpop group, and has ties to over 160 groups – the biggest of which is BongBong Marcos United at over 160,000 members, and other overseas Filipino workers groups like Pinoy OFW sa UAE with over 67,000 members.
Rappler checked with ABS-CBN and learned that "Mutya Bautista," who has only 21 friends, was and is not connected with the media giant, which has correspondents and outlets in the U.S.
A young woman called "Lily Lopez" also declared herself to be connected with Xurpas Inc. But she's not. She used as her profile picture the photo of former Miss Korea and now actress Kim Sa-rang. She also happens to be a Facebook “friend” of the fake "Mutya Bautista."
A fourth Facebook account, that of a "Jasmin De La Torre"(below) shows the exact same cover photo as Lily Lopez. She only has 14 friends as of October 7 but is a member of various groups whose members total almost a million.
The messages shared by these accounts penetrated a large segment of the population in the Philippines and friends and relatives spread across the globe in the Filipino diaspora.
In this environment, social media is a powerful tool. Tweets from one fake profile reached 43,337 different accounts. It had 1.9 million impressions.Many times, American journalists who criticize the Duterte regime especially his extrajudicial war on drugs are often targeted by Duterte's "keyboard army" along the lines of the tweets received by Sean Williams who wrote in The New Republic: “Maybe u are anti-Duterte TROLL,” tweeted a poster named Madelyn. “A foreigner who knows NOTHING bout my country.” She seemed to devote her waking hours to spreading her love of Duterte and assailing anyone who questioned him, posting dozens of times a day. “My President and I am proud of him,” one tweet read. “Get lost critics!”
The army of pro-Duterte trollers gives the false impression of the strongman's popularity that manifested itself into the movement that led to Duterte's 2016 election victory and continues to give him the power to wage his largely condemned war on drugs, threaten journalists (the Philippines is the most deadliest country for journalists) and insult President Barack Obama without suffering any political consequences.
RELATED: Filipino/Americans are not genuine Filipinos, says Duterte
In this busy online environment: enter Cambridge Analytica. The parent company website of Cambridge Analytica, Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), or SCL Group, shows it has 13 offices worldwide – including the Philippines.
About a year before the Philippine Presidential election, CA's CEO Nix, also director of SCL, was in Manila.
Former journalist and now Presidential Communications Undersecretary Joel Egco covered Nix’s visit for the Manila Times. The article said Nix was in the country “for a research.”
As they did in the U.S., Cambridge Analytica mined data from Facebook to target sets of voters by their personalities and behavior. The information was then used to target Facebook users on content specifically tailored for them.
“If you know the personality of the people you’re targeting, you can nuance your messaging to resonate more effectively with those key groups," said Nix said in a 2016 speech.
Nix told the Manila Times, “While TV continue to dominate the campaign landscape, the most powerful way to win elections is to have the people themselves campaign for you. Instead of relying heavily on political surveys, campaign strategists must use those data to influence the behavior of the person.”
A report by the South China Morning Post, said that an archived version of the SCL/Cambridge Analytica website boasts of its role in the rebranding of its client “as a strong, no-nonsense man of action, who would appeal to the true values of the voters,” which was the image adopted by Duterte for his campaign.
If Trump's campaign and Great Britain's Brexit vote were SCL/CA's biggest triumph, it honed its practices in the Philippines and other countries in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In total, SCL/CA has been involved in 100 elections in 32 countries.
One of the first things a dictator does when he comes into power is to take control of the media. What Duterte is doing, instead of closing down traditional media -- TV stations or newspapers -- he simply drowns them out with social media as his megaphone.
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If Trump's campaign and Great Britain's Brexit vote were SCL/CA's biggest triumph, it honed its practices in the Philippines and other countries in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. In total, SCL/CA has been involved in 100 elections in 32 countries.
One of the first things a dictator does when he comes into power is to take control of the media. What Duterte is doing, instead of closing down traditional media -- TV stations or newspapers -- he simply drowns them out with social media as his megaphone.
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