Social media influencer found dead at L.A. home

GMA

Filipino American social media influencer Emmanuelle "Emman" Atienza, the 19-year-old daughter of Filipino TV host Kim Atienza, died by suicide at her Los Angeles home on October 22. Her family confirmed her passing and requested privacy in a statement released Oct. 24 on social media.

"It's with deep sadness that we share the unexpected passing of our daughter and sister, Emman," the statement began.

"She brought so much joy, laughter, and love int our lives and into the lives of everyone who knew her," they continued.

The family described Emman as someone who made "people feel seen and heard."

"She wasn't afraid to share her own journey with mental health. Her authenticity helped so many feel less alone," they added.

Reading about the suicide of 19-year-old Emman Atienza, I can't help but think about the unspoken stories of our community.

This is a story that goes beyond a single tragedy. It's a snapshot of a bigger problem, one we rarely talk about. Here was a young Filipino American influencer, seemingly with the world at her fingertips, who was battling demons in plain sight. Emman was candid about her mental health struggles on TikTok and Instagram, but her bravery couldn't shield her from the constant vitriol of online hate.

We're often told to be resilient, to just brush things off or simply pray to God. But what happens when the weight of the world, amplified by a thousand faceless trolls online, becomes too much to bear?

Emman was a popular social media personality who built a massive following at 19, with over 900,000 on TikTok and 240,000 on Instagram. Through her social media accounts, she was an advocate for mental well-being and empowered Gen Z through body positivity.

She had been open on her platforms about her mental health struggles. In a social media post in January 2024, she disclosed that she had struggled with mental illness since age 12 and had relapsed into self-harm.

In the months leading up to her death, Emman had briefly deactivated her TikTok account, despite having over a million followers. In an Instagram broadcast on September 1, the influencer explained the reasons behind the deactivation. She could be heard saying:

“Some of you guys messaged me asking where my TikTok account is, if I got banned, if I deleted it, etc., and I just wanted to update saying I deactivated it. I feel like the hate has piled up in my head subconsciously.”

She explained that she needed time away from social media to “recollect my thoughts, reset my values, and clear my head of the dread.”

Her death has prompted a wider discussion about the impact of cyberbullying and online harassment on mental health. In a September 2025 post, Atienza detailed the toll that constant negativity and anxiety took on her mental health from online hate.

Her father, Kim Atienza ,is a popular television host in the Philippines and a former Manila councilor.

We see a young life cut short and hear the echoes of a family's grief. It's a reminder that even in the darkest moments, hope is needed. Emman's passing has ignited a new conversation about the toxic environment of social media and its impact on mental health.

Filipino Americans experience higher rates of mental health issues like depression and anxiety than other Asian American groups, yet they are significantly less likely to seek professional treatment. This disparity is driven by a complex mix of cultural factors, historical trauma, and systemic barriers that create a profound stigma around mental health struggles and help-seeking.

This is our collective task as Filipinos and Filipino Americans: to speak up, to protect our young, and to turn our grief and/or shame into real change. The digital world is here to stay, but the compassion we extend to one another must also be a constant. Otherwise, the cycle of online harassment and silent suffering will continue.

The Atienza family asked their fans and followers to "carry forward the qualities she lived by: compassion, courage and a little extra kindness in your everyday life."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. 

They’re calling her an 'influencer.' Deja Foxx is calling it campaign strategy

GenXer Deja Foxx's campaign uses social media as an end run around traditional outreach.

With a week to go before election day, 18,000 individual donors, Instagram and TikTok views have kept Deja Foxx — a Filipino American and once a long-shot Gen Z candidate — competitive in Arizona's 7th  Congressional District 

By Jessica Kutz
Reprinted with Permission
Originally published in The 19th, July 7, 2025

TUCSON, ARIZ. — On a Saturday afternoon, Deja Foxx is staging a TikTok Live in her living room. A phone tripod is set up in front of her kitchen table. The frame is centered on a slouchy sofa against an adobe wall, where a chile ristra hangs on one side.

“All right, everybody, take your seats,” she tells the mix of young volunteers, family members and campaign staff who are gathered to help her. “You have some really great mail to open, and I'm so excited because usually it's just me and my mom that do this.”

She goes live and takes a seat next to her mom on the couch.

One volunteer reads a letter from a 19-year-old named Henry from California: “Even though I can't vote for you, I adore your campaign,” he wrote. “We need more young leaders and new, fresh ideas from us, Gen Z. As someone who grew up on MediCal, and free public school lunch, who currently is uninsured, I enjoy your background and fighting for us.”

Another volunteer read a note from 20-year-old Julie, who wrote that while she’s been frustrated and overwhelmed by the state of politics, following Foxx’s campaign gave her hope. “I've been writing to my officials, but wanted to write something positive for a change. Keep doing what you're doing.”

Other letter writers included a 22-year-old activist who started organizing after the Parkland shooting, a college student in Phoenix who offered to work for Foxx’s political office in the future, a 23-year-old from Chicago who started following her social media years ago, a North Carolina dad of a daughter moving to Arizona, and a Kentucky woman worried about Medicaid coverage. Volunteers spent 30 minutes reading that day’s mail. During the weekly segment, the audience is usually in the thousands.

Most of the notes included a donation, with the amounts ranging from $20 to $2,000. By the end of the read out Foxx had raised $4,000, mostly from people located outside Arizona. Just two days before, she announced she hit $500,000 in campaign donations, raised through 18,000 individual donors.

Just two months ago, Foxx wrote on Substack about the difficulties of running her campaign for Congress as a Gen Z candidate. She made a plea directly to her online followers: “Our biggest challenge and the only one that really matters: You haven't invested in us yet.”

At the time, a slow trickle of donations was keeping afloat her campaign to fill the seat left by U.S. Rep Raúl Grijalva, who represented the southern Arizona district for over 20 years.

"If we want to win in 2028, I promise you that it is going to require electing leaders in this party who can be effective messengers.”

-- Deja Foxx
Shortly after the lawmaker’s death in March, his daughter Adelita Grijalva — who has served for decades in local politics on Tucson’s school board and more recently on the Pima County Board of Supervisors — tossed her hat in the ring for the Democratic primary. Then came the endorsements: Arizona U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, and progressive politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The winner of that primary, which takes place July 15 and includes former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, will almost certainly go on to win the September special election in this solidly Democratic district.

Foxx announced that she would take on Grijalva in early April. Most of her short political life — at 25, she would be the youngest woman elected to Congress — has focused on reproductive rights. She served on the board of Planned Parenthood in Arizona at age 17, worked in Tucson health clinics as a sex educator in high school, and more recently worked on the <a href="https://19thnews.org/2024/11/arizona-abortion-ballot-measure-results/">Prop 139 Ballot Initiative campaign</a> in 2024, which enshrined the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.

But while Foxx doesn’t have the backing of “the establishment,” as she refers to it, or the name recognition of Grijalva, she’s created her own buzz by using her social media platforms to speak directly to her generation. Over the past month, her stories have been viewed almost 30 million times on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. She also has thousands of followers on Substack. That support and the donations that followed afforded her television advertisements, something that was out of reach when she started.

Her social media savvy has allowed her to bypass the need for big donors, build her own following, and capitalize on national support that’s percolated from the ground up. Along the way she’s making the argument that her social media skills aren’t just part of a campaign strategy, but necessary to communicate the politics of the party as the electorate grows younger and more disillusioned.

“We saw people in the party, in the traditional media, wringing their hands, ‘How did we lose young people in this last election? Why did they move toward apathy and the other side? … And it's because we're failing to compete in social media and new media spaces,” Foxx said. “If we want to win in 2028, I promise you that it is going to require electing leaders in this party who can be effective messengers.

Foxx learned the power of a viral moment when she was a 16-year-old activist for Planned Parenthood. At a town hall in 2017, she asked former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake (R) why he would deny her the American dream by voting against funding that made birth control accessible to people who grew up in poverty. Foxx, who was insured through Medicaid at the time, got her birth control from Planned Parenthood.

A clip of the exchange went viral. “I woke up the next day and millions had seen the video,” she said. It’s a moment that changed how she thought about activism. The fact that millions of people watched her on their phones and computers put her on equal footing in public discourse with the United States senator, she said. “As a 16-year-old girl working at a gas station … that is remarkable.”

In the nine years since, the political world has grown to recognize the necessity of social media in campaigns, and politicians have turned to Foxx for her expertise. At the same time she was becoming a prominent reproductive rights activist, she used Instagram to build community among her peers through her organization Gen Z Girl Gang. She worked as an influencer and digital strategist for the Kamala Harris campaign in 2019 and later as a social media director at a political action committee. In 2024, she was invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention in support of Harris as an activist and content creator

But it’s in her own run for Congress where she has been able to test these communication strategies herself. On her TikTok and Instagram accounts, soundbites from her debates have racked up millions of views. More personal reels, like when she surprised her mom with her first batch of campaign literature, have gone viral. She’s embraced being interviewed by independent journalists with followings on places like Substack and YouTube.

“She's using communication styles and platforms that are meeting people where they're at. That style may turn off some older voters, but it's going to excite younger voters who are particularly disaffected or disenfranchised or disheartened by American politics and even the Democratic party,” said Jessica Maddox, an associate professor of digital media at the University of Alabama. “I've been particularly impressed with her TikTok presence, because it feels very authentic.”

That authenticity is the main ingredient in connecting with young voters online, experts say. Maddox and others pointed to the success of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in New York as an example of how young politicians are tapping into social media to drum up real support at the polls. Both candidates utilized platforms to engage with people, like Gen Z, who are likely to sit out primaries where voters tend to be older.

The strategy puts lesser known candidates on a more equal playing field, allowing them to subvert the traditional hierarchies that fuel campaigns. “There’s always been a tight relationship between legacy media and politics, and social media kind of upends that,” Maddox said. “[Foxx] can kind of bypass more traditional outlets and get the message out herself.”

(Courtney Pedroza for The 19th)

Deja Foxx poses for a portrait on at her home in Tucson, Arizona. 

Social media has also turned a local race into a national fundraiser, which has helped her stay competitive. Candidates like Grijalva and Hernandez have benefited from deeper donor pockets, and outside support from political action committees. By early May, both candidates had already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Arizona Republic. Their latest campaign finance numbers are expected to be released soon. Foxx announced she had hit $600,000 in donations at the end of June.

“It's an interesting social media element that someone these days could have supporters kind of all over the country, even though they're running for a very specific seat,” said Kathryn Coduto, a professor of media science at Boston University.

While there is a scarcity of polls in the race, a recent one commissioned by Foxx’s campaign shows her name recognition has risen significantly since May, when half of likely voters hadn’t heard of her. And, on Wednesday, David Hogg’s political action committee announced it would be endorsing her in the race. Hogg, who became famous for his activism after the Parkland mass shooting, now runs a political organization called Leaders We Deserve, aimed at building generational change for Democrats.

“If we replace one of the oldest members of Congress with the youngest — Deja is just 25 years old — we could send an incredibly strong message about which direction the Democratic Party is heading in, and show people how we are dramatically changing to meet this moment,” Hogg said in an Instagram Reel.

While Foxx has worked as an influencer in the past, now that she’s running for office that label has been used to undercut her years of political work and activism. At her first debate, Foxx also pointed out that some of her opponents have belittled her influencer experience. In recent news articles, people associated with Grijalva’s campaign have questioned whether Foxx’s national reach is the same as in-district community support.

The label “influencer” carries a lot of baggage, experts say. It’s still seen as superficial or trivial despite its power in activism and politics. It’s also another way of writing off young people, particularly women, as unserious.

“It’s seen as like little girls playing instead of actually utilizing this tool to accomplish something and talk to constituents,” Coduto said.

Jade Larson, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on political fandom and social media, said it’s also not surprising that there is such a stigma around being a politician-influencer.

“Every time media is used in a new way in politics, it's this scandalous thing,” she said. “You can track it all the way back to Bill Clinton going on the ‘Late Night Show’ and playing saxophone, to Obama starting POTUS on Twitter, to Trump making his own social media [network]. It's always something that's scandalous, and people push back against it until it kind of becomes the mainstream and the norm.

Arguably it is the mainstream now. The power of social media that Foxx tapped into nearly a decade ago has only grown more influential in politics and the media — two industries that are closely intertwined. A report from the  Pew Research Center found that over half of U.S. adults get some of their news from social media, with women and Democrats making up greater regular news consumers on apps like TikTok and Instagram. These users also skew younger, with those between the ages of 18 to 40 making up the bulk of social media news consumers. In a separate poll by Pew Research, 48 percent of TikTok users ages 18 to 29 say keeping up with politics is one of the reasons they are on the platform.

“A whole lot of congresspeople can give a very solid MSNBC interview,” Foxx said. But as someone who interviewed them as a content creator at the State of the Union, “I'm telling you that when they are put in front of an iPhone, there are so many members that fail to communicate. They don't think the way that our generation thinks. They fail to understand sound bites and algorithms, and youth or even meme culture.”

At the same time that these social media strategies are taking off, voting power is also starting to shift to the very people that use them. Soon, Gen Z and Millennials will have just as much political sway as Gen X and the Baby Boomers<em> — if they go out and vote, Coduto said.

“If you can cultivate enough excitement and you can find a way to really break through and get people to the polls by using social media, then I think it’s going to be an unstoppable strategy.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X or at the blog Views From the Edge. Now on BlueSky.

AANHPI may be in for a rough time in the upcoming Presidential election

Anti-Asian attacks has coincided with emboldened White supremacist groups.

In case you haven't noticed, the 2024 Presidential race has already begun with 18 months to go before the the election. Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders should gird themselves for campaigns which will target them as an important vote-rich demographic and as "the other."

Since the start of the pandemic, it has been a fearful three years for AANHPI, blamed for COVID19 and economic tensions generated by deteriorating China-US relations. The campaign season will most likely increase the xenophobic hate towards AANHPI.

Each of the last four presidential campaign cycles has shown an unmistakable pattern: Reported hate crimes increase during elections, according to the Leadership Conference Education Fund report — “Cause for Concern 2024: The State of Hate.”

WHITE SUPREMACISTS

And while not all hate crimes and hate incidents are committed by white supremacists, as this paper outlines, white supremacists have been particularly active during the last four presidential elections. From the mainstreaming of hate and the failure of social media platforms to adequately address disinformation, the current climate is rife with opportunities for the trend of increased hate to continue into the 2024 election — unless action is taken.

In March 2023, the FBI released the most recent statistics on hate crimes. These data showed that 2021 was the highest year on record for reported hate crimes since the FBI began publishing the data in 1991. But because law enforcement agencies do not have to report any data on hate crimes to the FBI, this is not the full picture. In fact, 2021 had the lowest amount of participation from law enforcement agencies since 2012. Even though the most recent data show the highest number of reported hate crimes on record, we know the reality is far worse.

FYI: View the full report “Cause for Concern 2024: The State of Hate” ›

Tragically, since 2015, reported hate crimes have nearly doubled. The Trump candidacy empowered white nationalists and provided them with a platform — one they had been seeking with renewed intensity since the historic election of America’s first Black president in 2008. Since 2015, communities across the country have experienced some of the most violent and deadliest years for hate in modern history.

Today’s political climate is highly charged. From white supremacist and anti-government movements coalescing and moving more into the political mainstream, to conspiracy theories circulating online and public officials amplifying hate, there are few — if any — signs that tensions will lessen. Movements grounded in attempts to whitewash history and deny the rights of the LGBTQ+ community have turned hate into campaign platforms.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Contributing to this climate are social media companies that have not internalized the lessons of the past and have set the stage for a 2024 election year that is at least as toxic online as past elections. Platforms have policies in place that curb and prevent the spread of hate and voting disinformation, but they do not consistently enforce them. 

Furthermore, major platforms,such as the Elon Musk-owned Twitter, have cut back or eliminated their trust and safety staff and hollowed out protections against hate incitements on their platforms.

Some of the key concerns that spurred the Leadership report is based on  the FBI report that showed, among other findings:

Anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate Crimes: The most recent

• Data from the FBI showed a 168% increase in anti-Asian hate crime incidents reported from 2020 to 2021.

• Hate crimes have increased by more than 80% since 2015.

• 2021 was the highest year on record for reported hate crimes since the FBI began publishing the data in 1991.

• Anti-Islamic (Muslim) Hate Crimes: From 2020 to 2021, the community was subjected to a 40% increase in reported hate crimes.

• Anti-Sikh Hate Crimes: The number of reported anti-Sikh hate crimes has increased significantly, reaching a record high in 2021. Currently, anti-Sikh hate crimes are the second most common form of religiously motivated hate crimes after anti-Jewish hate crimes.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Leadership Conference Education Fund’s “Cause for Concern” series first published in 1997 — provides the following recommendations for how to address the current state of hate ahead of a deeply concerning 2024 election cycle:

• Social media platforms must invest in de-platforming hate for the upcoming local, state, and national elections.

• The federal government must confront and address white supremacist violence without further criminalizing communities of color, religious minorities, and other marginalized communities.

• Congress must mandate hate crime data collection and reporting.

• Public officials must speak out against hate.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric, anti-China legislation, racist laws and the green light to express racist beliefs and suppress the true diverse history of the United States, have already been expressed by Republican candidates, from Nikki Haley to Ron DiSantis to Donald Trump.

It will only get worse as the campaign heats up and conservative candidates try to outdo each other to garner the votes of the extreme right.

As the fastest growing segment of the US population, the majority of whom are first-generation immigrants, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders  need to pay close attention to what is being said and who is saying it.  And when it comes time to vote: Remember.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

Beware fake news; disinformation campaigns seeks to confuse, divide, dampen and anger AANHPI voters

ANALYSIS

As the 2022 Midterm election on Nov. 8 draws nearer, fake news has ramped up seeking to nullify the growing influence of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.

As the political influence of Asian Americans increases, bad actors have worked to build sprawling misinformation networks, including a vast media empire bankrolled by Steve Bannon and Guo Wengui, targeting members of the Asian American diaspora, says community advocates such as Advancing Asian American Justice (AAAJ).

“The conservative right-wing are better organized, and they know how to manipulate the concerns and fears of the Chinese-speaking community,” says Elaine Peng, president of the Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities. “It is easy for the community to believe and trust them. The right-wing rely heavily on misinformation and disinformation to advance their conservative agendas."

Harmful narratives are one of the greatest challenges facing Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in today’s world. They are making communities less safe, our trust in the election systems weaker, and even tearing some families apart.

RELATED: Negative campaigning targeting AANHPI electorate

Disinformation is explicitly designed to expose the frictions, fault lines, and tensions within and across our various diasporic communities while also working to deplatform AANHPI communities from democracy and create divisions with other communities of color.

Dis/misinformation exposes frictions, fault lines, and tensions within and across our various diasporic communities, according to a report by Asian American Disinformation Table,  a coalition of AANHPI organizations that coordinates research, strategies, policy recommendations, pop culture, messaging interventions, & corporate accountability around issues of domestic & transnational misinformation and disinformation impacting Asian Americans.

The Table's study found problematic narratives span three key themes: 

1. Using Asians as ‘wedges’ against other communities of color; 

2. Exploiting internal divides and hierarchies within Asian communities; 

3. Weaponizing current and historical traumas. W

So where is all the fake news coming from? In all the articles read by Views From the Edge, no one was able to point fingers at any single entity. The mis/disinformation is coming from multiple sources with multiple agendas, from foreign entities who wish to destabilize US society to radical Republicans who want to dominate Washington politics to advocates of a single issue like abortion or affirmative action. 

Certainly most of the messaging of fake news leading up to the Midterms is coming from the radical right. However, their conservative political goals easily leak into other issues that -- in their perspective -- are all interconnected: affirmative action, social security, Medicare, what histories and books are being taught in the US schools, anti-abortion, the role of big government on social issues to advocates of any number of strategies that fatten the pockets of billionaires. And we cannot forget the White racists who are afraid of losing their dominance and influence on US society.

Self-proclaimed newscasters on YouTube have become a primary news source for some Chinese speakers in the US, offering political hot takes that often slide into misinformation, says Jenny L., who helps track disinformation and misinformation for AAAJ.

She asked Medium that her last name be withheld to avoid online harassment. “It’s pretty easy for them to skirt the minimal moderation YouTube has in place for non-English content,” she says.

The AANHPI communities, particularly first-generation immigrants who are English-language learners, are among the most vulnerable to false narratives often due to limited language access to available resources and information. Many rely on community-translated content for important information such as voting and the election process, leaving room for bad actors to inject falsehoods.

Falsehoods spread range from harmful health misinformation to lies about the 2020 presidential election. Through translations of false claims and original content creation, these well-resourced groups have made mis/disinfo “accessible” to in-language communities, carefully exploiting home country biases and sensitive topics such as the Chinese Cultural Revolution to cater their messaging to vulnerable diaspora communities.

These efforts have not been effective. A growing subset of the Asian American community — largely first-generation immigrants for whom English is not their native tongue — subscribe to “the big lie,” question the integrity of electoral processes in the United States, and believe their children are being “indoctrinated” by “critical race theory” in public schools.

The success of this misinformation helped propel politicians to victory in elections, including in the 2021 Virginia governor’s race, and if left unchecked, this infodemic has dangerous implications for the 2022 midterms.

Chinese-language content on Twitter, YouTube, and WeChat leading up to and immediately after the 2021 California recall election and the 2021 Virginia governor’s race was rife with false claims and misleading information.

Unfortunately, attempts by social media platforms to monitor false information  have failed to stop the spread of fake news. When it comes to monitoring the misinformation in a foreign language those efforts are even less effective.

In response to growing mis/information, several groups have emerged to fact-check and counter the misinformation.

Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) launched its pioneering Chinese Digital Engagement program in 2019 to provide accurate information to the Chinese American community about issues related to social justice such as immigration reform, racial justice, and affirmative action. Its work includes three WeChat channels and the websites JusticePatch.org and PiYaoBa.org. Launched in early 2022, “PiYaoBa” means “let’s fact-check it” in Mandarin Chinese and is the first centralized Chinese-language fact-checking website to combat right-wing disinformation.

“We saw how people were being manipulated by fake news and rumors,” says Vincent Pan, CAA’s Co-Executive Director. “It is imperative that there be trusted sources providing factual information. As a civil rights organization with a long history serving our community, CAA stepped up to fill the need.”

The Chinese Digital Engagement team at CAA systematically researches and documents misinformation and disinformation. As detailed in the report, from April 1 to September 15, 2022, the team found 320 major disinformation narratives from 138 different social media accounts and channels. Some examples of the rumors being spread include the false assertion that the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago is a Democratic Party conspiracy to rig the midterm elections. The most popular conspiracy theories push the narrative that election fraud is prevalent, threatening the very foundation of our democracy.

Jinxia Niu, CAA’s Chinese Digital Engagement program manager, warns that Chinese-language mis/disinformation poses an even greater challenge than English-language disinformation because WeChat’s closed nature and censorship makes it difficult to share accurate information.

“Although we monitor disinformation daily and have published more than 900 Chinese-language articles across our WeChat channels and websites, this is not nearly enough — and we can’t do this alone,” Niu says. “The public, policy makers, social media platforms, and community partners need to be aware of the threat of disinformation so that we can address it together.”

To counter the mis/disinformation trying to confuse AANHPI voters, a number of community advocates have created fact-checking sites.

Fake news targeting older Indian immigrants was widespread on WhatsApp, including claims that ballots would not count if voters selected Democrats for every post or if election officials signed dropped-off ballots.

“There’s just a lot of inaccurate information for an already confusing process and this year is different for everybody because we’re relying on virtual connections more than ever,” North Carolina Asian Americans Together Executive Director Chavi Khanna Koneru told Reuters in 2020.

Desifacts, a project of the advocacy group Indian American Impact, began publishing explainers on relevant topics focusing on South Asian American communities in Hindi, Bengali and Tamil this year.

“The pervasive spread of mis- and disinformation exacerbates partisan disagreement, erodes trust in our democracy, stifles or prevents voter participation, and has tremendous consequences on health outcomes such as personal decisions around getting vaccinated,” read a statement on the Desifacts website. “In South Asian communities, misinformation has fueled Islamophobia and racism against other communities of color.”

Viet Fact Check, one of the few multilingual groups that debunk false information, has observed an uptick in falsehoods targeting Vietnamese American communities online.

“There’s definitely a hyper-targeting of messaging,” said Viet Fact Check co-founder Nick Nguyen. “This is where a lack of English-language fluency can make populations vulnerable.”

To further combat the spread of mis/disinformation within AANHPI communities, Advancing Justice — AAJC has been tracking messaging trends on social media to gain a better understanding of how bad actors will likely amplify their disinformation campaigns leading up to the November midterms this fall. This is what they found:

Twitter

Several tweets, many with hundreds of likes or retweets, were direct translations of false claims from individuals like former president Donald Trump and Sidney Powell or news organizations like Newsmax; these tweets (see example below) often linked to original English-language videos or posts that perpetuate false claims, such as referencing the presidential election scam or baselessly asserting mail-in ballot fraud. 

In Virginia, tweets the day before and the day of the election sought to sow distrust in the election results before polls even closed. The following tweet made false accusations about Democrats “stealing” the election. Others stated that the Republican candidate should win and any other election outcome would indicate fraud, disregarding the fact democratic electoral systems give each candidate a fair shot.

NBC

Additional tweets both leading up to and after the recall election of California's Gov. Gavin Newsom attempted to falsely attribute various perceived ills of California, such as homelessness and crime, to one candidate. Not surprisingly, several popular tweets surrounding the recall originated from in-language media outlets known for promoting fake news and baseless conspiracy narratives. 

YouTube

Another common feature in disinformation targeting Chinese Americans and immigrants is showcasing anti-CCP, anti-communism narratives that incite fear among Asian American communities. Similarly, the video below posted at the beginning of September included various pieces of misinformation concerning existing California laws, including a false assertion about Proposition 47 despite facts stating the law does not end prosecution of thefts under $950 in the state, and misrepresentations of the effects of affirmative action. The video also made incorrect claims about perpetrators of anti-Asian violence. Though some high-profile videos have attempted to paint a different picture, most anti-Asian attacks are perpetrated by white people whose hate is driven by white supremacy and racism.

For example, in Virginia, education-focused topics, especially surrounding critical race theory (CRT), dominated election-related misinformation narratives on YouTube, reflecting the broader campaign on the right to misinform the public about the true nature of CRT. In the video below, a Chinese American volunteer for a political candidate was interviewed to speak about how opposition to CRT, which the individual incorrectly stated “caused discrimination,” helped galvanize Chinese American support for the candidate. In the months leading up to the election, the following video of a Chinese American mother of a Loudon County public school student falsely conflated CRT with the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

WeChat

WeChat misinformation was used to successfully organize Chinese American voters against San Francisco's progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin and prematurely end his term. 

This social media site based in China and flew under the radar for years until right-wingers began using it to garner political support and organize. Despite polls showing Asian America's overwhelming support of affirmative action, in 2014 conservative Chinese were able to garner headlines in mainstream media and distort the narrative to defeat a California measure attempting to overturn the state's anti-affirmative action law. 

“There was no such mobilization [among the Chinese American] community before WeChat happened,” says Steven Chen, a Los Angeles–area computer engineer who immigrated to the United States from mainland China in the late 1980s.

WeChat articles available to the public also showed extensive mis/disinfo narratives. A WeChat article  detailed reasons for supporting the Republican candidate and promoted disinformation including “irregularities” and “fraud” in the 2020 election relating to unfounded claims. Similar to mis/disinformation trends on Twitter and YouTube, several WeChat articles contained various misrepresentation of the current governor’s policies and statistics regarding crime and economic growth in California. 

These articles repeatedly made false assertions and perpetuated lies that seek to incite fear and anxiety among first generation immigrant communities and fuel division between communities of color, who have been working in solidarity to dismantle racism and white supremacy throughout our nation’s history

Virginia saw similar misrepresentations of its former governor’s policies and beliefs. Some WeChat articles made baseless claims that he introduced “CRT” into Virginia schools as early as 2015 and lowered academic standards, when the truth is critical race theory is not a part of the K-12 curriculum in the state. Others continued to perpetuate conspiracy theories and false assertations on the integrity of our electoral system, further galvanizing voters.

Chinese-language mis/disinfo related to the recall and the Virginia governor’s race appeared to be largely recycled mis/disinfo narratives from certain English-language channels, with additional emphasis on areas especially important to a Chinese American audience, such as crime, education, and anti-Asian hate. These mis/disinfo stories played on the Chinese American and immigrant community’s fears that California and Virginia would “turn into China” and heightened anxiety around perceived threats of socialism and communism.

Disinformation is also being used to direct hate towards AANHPI communities, and pit those ethnic groups against other people of color. This issue will only continue to grow if big, structural changes are not made, making it critical that we are prepared and able to respond.

“WeChat is a monster,” says Janelle Wong, a political scientist and professor of Asian American studies at the University of Maryland. “There’s nothing like it on Earth,” she told The Atlantic.

What can be done?

Valiant efforts by grassroot organizations trying to counter or expose the spread of mis/disinformation is not enough.

Tech companies, social media platforms, and politicians alike need to take more concrete actions to protect AANHPI communities from mis/disinformation in their native languages; content in different languages cannot continue to be treated as a “foreign” problem. Steps such as hiring more content moderators with appropriate language and cultural competency, banning the use of discriminatory algorithms, and creating greater platform transparency could make a large difference in shielding communities from harmful mis/disinformation narratives that pose tangible threats to US democracy.

“A growing subset of the Asian American community — largely first-generation immigrants for whom English is not their native tongue — subscribe to 'the big lie,' question the integrity of electoral processes in the United States, and believe their children are being 'indoctrinated' by 'critical race theory' in public schools,” AAJC explained.

“It’s not that we only have a WeChat or a WhatsApp problem; these platforms are accelerants,” said Vincent Pan, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action and co-founder of Asian Americans Against Trump, who is familiar with misinformation on WeChat. “It accelerates a lot of vulnerabilities that Chinese and other Asian immigrants with limited English proficiency have. They live in (an information) scarcity, under tremendous social and economic pressure and uncertainty.”

“Tech companies, social media platforms, and politicians alike need to take more concrete actions to protect Asian American communities from mis/disinformation in their native languages; content in different languages cannot continue to be treated as a 'foreign' problem,” AAJC pointed out.

Social media's false information poses dangerous implications for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island voters this year in the Midterm elections when AANHPI voters can tilt the scales in key races deciding whether  Democrats or Republicans control the House and Senate.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

 

Maria Ressa blasts social media as she receives Nobel Peace Prize

Maria Ressa warned against the role of unfettered social media in spreading lies and division.

The crucial role of journalism in a free democratic society was the message of  the two journalists -- Maria Ressa and Dmetry Murotov -- who received the Nobel Peace Prize Friday.

"Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that's coursing through our information ecosystem, prioritized by American internet companies that make more money," said Filipina American Ressa as she received the coveted award.

She accused U.S. social media giants like Facebook of spreading a "flood of toxic sludge" sowing division and hate through their platforms.

"Our greatest need today is to transform that hate and violence, the toxic sludge that's coursing through our information ecosystem," said Ressa, the first Filipino American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

The 58-year old co-founder the online news outlet Rappler in the Philippines has long been a vocal critic of social media that she accused Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte of weaponizing by hiring trolls to spread lies and half-truths against her and Rappler because of their criticism of Duterte's extrajudicial was on drugs that has fostered vigilante violence throughout the Philippines.

READ or WATCH Maria Ressa's Nobel Peace Prize speech.

"The attacks against us in Rappler began five years ago when we demanded an end to impunity on two fronts: Duterte's drug war and Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook," she said.

“These American companies controlling our global information ecosystem are biased against facts, biased against journalists,” she said. “They are — by design — dividing us and radicalizing us.”

The 2020 elections in the U.S. and the upcoming Presidential election in the Philippines in 2022 are war zones with democracy in the two countries at stake, she has warned earlier.

"You have to know what values you are fighting for, and you have to draw the lines early -- but if you haven't done so, do it now: where this side you're good, and this side, you're evil," she told her Nebel audience in Oslo, Norway. "Some governments may be lost causes, and if you're working in tech, I'm talking to you: How can you have election integrity if you don't have integrity of facts?"

The social network has been under intense scrutiny in recent years for how its algorithms promote content. CEOs and representatives of Facebook, Twitter and other media giants have been grilled by Congressional committees for their role in spreading false information. U.S. civil rights organizations have tried to convince Facebook leadership that it must address the use of its platform to spread voter disinformation, to intimidate and incite hate against vulnerable populations, and to otherwise undermine democracy. 

Ressa and her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was a young girl became an American citizen in 1973. She worked for CNN before founding Rappler.

Murotov, 60, is the editor in chief of Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s most outspoken national newspaper, for more than 25 years. He warned about the escalation of war rhetoric and the rise of authoritative leaders.

“The world has fallen out of love with democracy,” Muratov said in his acceptance  speech. “The world has become disappointed with the elites in power. The world has begun to turn to dictatorship.”

Int'l Women's Day: Social media attacks against journalist Maria Ressa appear coordinated

Maria Ressa (center) was arrested in Manila as soon as she got off the airplane.

As people in the United States know too well from the last four years of the Trump presidency, damaging the credibility of the news media with accusations of "fake news" is a prime strategy for sowing disinformation and chaos.

Press freedom in the Philippines, once the most free-wheeling and aggressive in Asia, has been under attack since the days of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Under the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, at the center of the media storm is Maria Ressa, a Filipino American journalist who  returned to the Philippines to use her pen to rail against the human rights abuses of the Duterte presidency.

Ressa lives at the core of a very 21st century war against press freedom, especially against outspoken women journalists. It is a furor of disinformation and attacks - one in which credible journalists are subjected to online violence with impunity; where facts wither and democracies teeter.

"She is not only attacked for being a journalist. She is attacked for being a woman. For the color and texture of her skin. For her American citizenship. And for her sexuality," says the report.

New research released on March 8, which marks International Women’s Day, provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the online violence against Ressa, reports the Centre for Freedom of the Media , a global research agency for media freedom and maintaining journalistic standards.

The research which was published by the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) and conducted by CFOM members Julie Posetti, Diana Maynard and Kalina Bontcheva, consists of a big data analysis “of the torrent of social media attacks on internationally celebrated digital media pioneer Maria Ressa over a five-year period (2016-2021).”

The research “detail[s] the intensity and ferocity of this abuse, and demonstrate[s] how it is designed not only to vilify a journalism icon, but to discredit journalism itself, and shatter public trust in facts”. It is also shown how “[t]hese attacks (…) created an enabling environment for Ressa’s persecution and prosecution in the Philippines” where Ressa “faces a barrage of baseless lawsuits that seek to criminalize her work and expose her to a century in prison” according to Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC, the co-lead of Ressa’s international legal team.

The research further shows how “the furor of disinformation and attacks” targeting the former CNN war correspondent and UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize jury chair Maria Ressa is emblematic of “a very 21st century storm (…) – one in which credible journalists are subjected to online violence with impunity; where facts wither and democracies teeter”.

Key research findings show that: “almost 60% of the attacks on Ressa … extracted from Facebook and Twitter for analysis were designed to undermine her professional credibility and public trust in her journalism”.

Attacks intending to harm Ressa’s credibility or reputation “frequently deployed disinformation tactics and abuse conflating Ressa and her journalism with “fake news” (e.g., “Queen of Fake News”; “LIAR”; “#Presstitute”)”.

Moreover, “[o]ver 40% of the attacks in the combined datasets targeted Ressa at the personal level” and “14% of all abuse and 34% in the category of ‘personal’ attacks against Ressa could be classified as misogynistic, sexist and explicit abuse”.

The research also finds “evidence that some of the attacks on Ressa are coordinated or orchestrated – a hallmark of State-led disinformation campaigns.”

These are the 11 key findings of the case study examining online violence against Ressa:

1. Almost 60% of the attacks on Ressa we extracted from Facebook and Twitter for analysis were designed to undermine her professional credibility and public trust in her journa
2. Credibility or reputation-based attacks frequently deployed disinformation tactics and abuse conflating Ressa and her journalism with “fake news” (e.g., “Queen of Fake News”; “LIAR”; “#Presstitute”).
3. Over 40% of the attacks in the combined datasets targeted Ressa at the personal level - often viscerally.
4. 14% of all abuse and 34% in the category of ‘personal’ attacks against Ressa could be classified as misogynistic, sexist and explicit abuse.
5. The use of abusive memes and manipulated images, which ‘fly under the radar’ of detection, is commonplace.
6. There is evidence that some of the attacks on Ressa are coordinated or orchestrated - a hallmark of State-led disinformation campaigns.
7. Much of the abuse and threats are fueled by President Duterte’s public statements demonizing Ressa and Rappler as criminals, and pro-Duterte bloggers/social media influencers.
8. Lightning rods for attacks include: Rappler’s investigative journalism; Ressa’s reporting and commentary on State-linked disinformation; Ressa’s high-profile media appearances; her industry accolades; and her court appearances.
9. Facebook is the main vector for the online violence Ressa faces. It is also the most used social media site in the Philippines - a country which spends more time online than any other.
10. Both Facebook and Twitter have promised to address the attacks on Ressa, but Facebook has failed dismally to effectively stem the tide of hate against her. Ressa says she feels “significantly safer” on Twitter.
11. For every one comment supportive of Ressa on her Facebook page, there were about 14 comments attacking her.

There is direct evidence that the online violence targeting Ressa has offline consequences. It has created the enabling environment for her persecution, prosecution and conviction. It also subjects her to very real physical danger.

The study identifies key recommendations for action based on the case study of online violence against Ressa. These point to the need for:

• Political actors to be held accountable for inciting violence against women journalists;
• States to review and adapt legal and regulatory frameworks designed to uphold freedom of expression and equality, to ensure they can be applied effectively online as well as offline;
• News organizations to provide integrated digital and physical security, alongside psychological and peer support for women journalists targeted online; for social media companies to create specialist teams to respond swiftly to attacks on women journalists;
• Law enforcement and the judiciary to ensure gender-sensitive and digitally-literate responses to online violence against women journalists.

READ the full report here.

Bretman Rock dedicates his People's Choice award to his late father

Bretman Rock was a hit on the Red Carpet prior to the Peoplles' Choice Awards last week.

Little did anyone know that when Bretman Rock was accepting his award as "Beauty Influence of the Year during the 2019 People's Choice Awards last week, his heart was breaking.
The day after (Nov.11), on social media, Rock, one of the "influencer" dedicated his award to his late father, who had died days earlier in the Philippines.

"I love you so much and I will always be grateful for allowing me to express myself and defended me whenever haters said anything. This one is for you Papa. I hope I make you the proudest," said Bretman.

He then added: "I remember I would always watch my grandma put on makeup for church and that’s when I fell Involve with makeup and vanity.. ugh I'm just lost for words. thank you guys [sic]."


Rock was up against major influencers like Jeffrey Star, James Charles, Desi Perkins, Nikki de Jager (NikkiTutorials), Rachel Levin (RCL Beauty), Nikita Dragun and Jackie Aina.

Like other AAPI influencers, social media has provided a platform for them to reach out to the public and for fans to find them -- thus, bypassing industry gatekeepers and bias against unknowns without the proper "connections." Lilly Singh, who now hosts a late night talk show on NBC is perhaps the best known breakout stars from social media.

Rock began creating Youtube videos in 2015 and became viral on Instagram and from former short-form video app Vine prior to that. 

Bretman Rock is one of the hottest celebrities on the Internet. The makeup artist and YouTube star boasts a legion of fans (he has 13.5 million followers on Instagram and 3.6 million on Twitter, as of August 2019) who can't get enough of his beauty videos that are all branded with his personal comedic flair.

Bretman Rock is his real name but his full name is Bretman Rock Sacayanan. "My dad was obsessed with wrestlers, and he liked Bret Hart and The Rock, so that's how he got Bretman Rock," Rock told KITV.

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Shay Mitchell allows fans to follow her pregnancy

From the deepest of secrets, Shay Mitchell has done a 180-degree turn, by allowing the world follow her as her pregnancy on social media. 

The Filipina Canadian announced in late June on social media that she is expecting her first child with boyfriend Matte Babel. She kept it a secret from her fans as long as she could. Approaching her sixth month, she revealed her pregnancy on social media with a very tasteful topless photo.

"Does this mean I’m allowed to drive in the car pool lane at all times now?" she joked, captioning a topless maternity shot that showcased her growing baby bump.

Mitchell's pregnancy announcement came just five months after the actress revealed that she suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage.

In a YouTube video, titled "Guess Who's Preggers," the actress detailed the lengths she went to hide this pregnancy early on, describing it as a "really lonely journey." 

"When you're in the public eye, there are some things you want to just keep a secret until you feel ready," she said in the video, which gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at everything from an ultrasound appointment to her maternity photo shoot. 

Mitchell, whose breakthrough role was in the Pretty Little Liars series, said she was ready to announce her pregnancy when she "couldn't hide it anymore and was tired of wearing oversized sweatshirts."

Mitchell, 32, also announced her pregnancy via a teaser for her new bi-weekly YouTube Original Series, Almost Ready. The sneak peek shows her with her boyfriend, TV host Matte Babel, 38, at her pregnancy shoot. The two have reportedly been dating since 2017.

The new series documents Mitchell's pregnancy journey. New episodes will be released every other Wednesday beginning on Wednesday, July 17.
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