TROLLS IN CONTROL
Cover Story

TROLLS IN CONTROL

Sep 16, 2024, 12:53 AM
OpinYon News Team

OpinYon News Team

News Reporter

With the filing of certificates of candidacy for the 2025 midterm elections only 15 days away, OpinYon Laguna is seeing the start of an all-out, no-holds barred campaign that involved a thinly-disguised attempt to influence voters and make an appearance of widespread, popular support.

Particularly worrying is the massive number of trolls that once again attempted to hijack OpinYon Laguna’s continuing series of online surveys.

This, local political observers noted, speaks not just about the “desperation” of certain political interests to grab power but also about their willingness to spend a lot of money in conditioning the minds of voters.

Déjà vu

Last May 24, when OpinYon Laguna “kicked off” its series of online surveys for the 2025 elections - starting with the gubernatorial race – it was immediately overwhelmed by a barrage of reactions supporting one particular candidate for governor.

However, upon close examination by its research team, OpinYon Laguna noted that many of these reactions come from so-called “troll accounts,” or accounts made for the sole purpose of flooding social media pages with reactions and propaganda in favor of or against certain interests.

Today, that same pattern is repeating itself in San Pedro City, one of the province’s most progressive cities – and a place where politics is really getting heated up beyond what political analysts had earlier expected.

Observers now see a fierce (and possibly dirty) battle between two political couples: incumbent Mayor Art Mercado and his wife, Mika, who had been urged to run either for vice mayor or representative of the city’s de facto lone district; and incumbent Representative Ann Matibag and her husband Melvin, who is expected to challenge Mercado in the polls.

As of September 13, that poll has garnered a record 11,320 reactions, 1,842 comments, and 376 shares.

Notably, propaganda social media pages operating from San Pedro City are already using the polls as proof that their candidate allegedly now commands widespread support and preference among the local electorate.

Unleashing the trolls

Not so fast, though, OpinYon Laguna’s research team now says after carefully looking into the profiles of those who participated in the survey.

The camp of one particular candidate has unleashed a flood of reactions from “unidentified accounts,” according to an analysis of 4,375 accounts, or 38.46 percent of the total number of reactions as of September 13.

Out of the 2,389 Facebook accounts who voted in favor of that particular candidate, 1,915 came from troll and unidentified accounts while 474 came from legitimate accounts.

Meanwhile, the other candidate can claim more legitimacy, as out of the 1,986 Facebook accounts who voted in his favor, only 377 came from troll accounts compared with 1,609 legitimate accounts in his favor.

Main characteristics

Not only that, OpinYon Laguna’s research team has managed to ferret out some characteristics of many troll accounts.

Not only are some of these accounts located far beyond Laguna province, many of these troll accounts almost have the same facial features. (Take note that some troll accounts who voted for a particular candidate had a woman as their profile picture.)

“Ang ginagawa naman po ng iba ay kukuha po sila ng ibang picture ng ibang tao sa Facebook – karamihan po ay mga menor-de-edad – tapos ayun ang gagamitin po nilang profile picture or cover photo po. Masaklap po ito doon sa may-ari ng photo kasi hindi po nila alam na nagamit na po ng iba yung picture po nila,” one of them told OpinYon Laguna.

Not only that, some of these troll accounts are "dormant accounts," or accounts whose last activity goes back years.

“May mga ilang accounts rin po na yung last post is nung 2021 pa po, kumbaga yung patay na Facebook account, nabuhay po ulit,” they noted.

Let the electorate beware

The question is: given the low comprehension and critical thinking skills of Filipino netizens on social media, should we be concerned with these online trolls infesting what should be an intelligent discussion on the needs and wants of our electorate?

“Of course, dapat lang tayong ma-concern dito,” a political analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity told OpinYon Laguna.

“Considering na alam na natin na milyon-milyon ang ginastos ng mga pulitiko on the national level for ‘online armies’ in the past elections, nakaka-alarma pa nga na umabot na hanggang sa local level ang paggamit sa mga ito.”

It also points to the level of “desperation” of some political interests, including dynasties who were unseated in the 2022 elections, to get back the power – and, by extension, to recoup the millions they had spent in wooing the voters.

“Sa palagay ko, 2025 is an election year some voters should also pay close attention to,” that political analyst opined.

“Many political dynasties and wannabe politicians want to ‘take back’ the power that the electorate managed to regain by electing new leaders back in 2022. Ito ang eleksyon na dapat mas maging mapanuri at mapagmatyag ang mga botante, lalo na ang mga kabataan na alam natin ay iba na ang criteria sa paghalal di tulad ng mga naunang henerasyon.”

#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonCoverStory #TrollsInControl #OnlinePoll #ElectionSurvey #Election2025MidtermElection


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