DDS modus: Confuse, corrupt, crush
THIS week, Senator Grace Poe presided over a public hearing about “fake news,” and boy, it was a riot. As it was broadcast and streamed, the public saw for themselves the humiliation of high government officials as they were found peddling fake news and falsehoods.
Senator Bam Aquino asked Secretary Martin Andanar what he thought of Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson’s post describing the senator as a credit-grabber when he congratulated the President for signing a bill into law.
Senator Manny Pacquiao demanded an apology from Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy for her post alleging he slept with a mistress. Badoy admitted she wrote it based on her source — a magtataho — and that it was her reaction to Pacquiao calling LGBTs names, as if that was a valid, mature, and LGBT-upholding manner of reacting. Yes, she said that. Go check the video.
Undersecretary Badoy also proclaimed, without presenting a shred of evidence, that the vice president is the biggest source of fake news, and that the president is the biggest victim. We asked through the chairman, Senator Poe, if the undersecretary’s statement was an official position of the Duterte government. The undersecretary, who was there because she is an official of government, said it was only her personal view.
Secretary Andanar himself was not spared the humiliation. He openly claimed not knowing the DDS bloggers and administrators of DDS pages that are widely known as peddlers of fake news, misinformation and disinformation. The claim clashes with established facts like the secretary himself granting and defending media accreditation to DDS bloggers for the ASEAN-related summits. The secretary of course cannot deny knowing Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson, and former DFA consultant RJ Nieto. They even had a DDS bloggers Christmas Party last year.
The secretary later confirmed these, and therefore exposed his falsehood right in front of senators and the public. An assistant secretary also admitted the PCOO knows and meets the DDS bloggers and Facebook Page administrators.
The twin of online fake news is online bullying, which emanate from DDS blogs and Facebook Pages. Death threats, rape threats, racist speech, sexist speech and other abusive speech, that violate good manners and right conduct are a staple of the DDS.
We pointed out that the PCOO is not setting a good example by allowing such online bullying to happen in comments sections of stateadministered social media accounts. Some of us would say that is actually encouraged, especially since they see president speak how he speaks.
A well-respected veteran journalist nonchalantly shared the results of its fact-checking project. Ellen Tordesillas of Vera Files said the President makes false statements in each speech, making him the biggest source of falsehoods in politics today.
Maria Ressa of social news network Rappler presented the results of its in-depth look into how social media had been “weaponized” in aid of the President’s chosen politics. It should be a good starting point for further study by the Senate, media, the academe, the technology community, political movements, and the public.
Even the original basis for the Senate hearing, — Nieto’s pretentious claims about an alleged Cocoygate — has lost steam. The National Bureau of Investigation representatives presented findings of its digital forensics investigation and they could only confirm that blogger Cocoy Dayao owns the blog Pro-Pinoy Project, a fact any respected blogger already knew from way back in 2010. Has the NBI confirmed Nieto’s claim that Dayao owns, manages, profits from, and writes for the blogs like Silent No More and Pinoy Ako Blog? No.
Two days after the hearing, the PCOO assistant secretary, who is now infamous for singlehandedly moving Mayon Volcano from Albay to Naga (a distance of 98.6 kilometers), belatedly unveiled the new talking points out to the DDS troll farm, DDS bloggers, and Facebook pages.
In a desperate effort to distract the public from what the senators themselves and the public witnessed in the hearing, the assistant secretary would now want us to believe that this columnist and blogger was the fake news peddler in the proceeding. She posted on Thursday morning a spliced video that may have been ordered to be done by public employees in a public office (guess which), using taxpayer-funded equipment, and ordered by public officials who were thoroughly exposed and humiliated in front of senators and the public.
A friend told me, “to be attacked personally by the Queen of Fake News is a badge of honor. It means you’re fighting fake news.” I’m proud to wear that badge of honor.
In the run-up to the 2016 elections, I expressed in media interviews and public forums many people’s hopes about the possible good uses of the Internet, social media, and technology to upgrade our politics: Like helping voters to organize themselves. Like providing candidates a bottomless forum to reach out to voters in order to present their platforms and programs of government. Like equipping parties with tools to manage their operations in a more professional way.
As a people, we’ve managed to make social media work for social good for disaster relief and rescue, for political causes like fighting pork barrel, and for supporting Filipino pageant beauty queens, artists, and athletes. Surely, we thought as the 2016 campaign approached, the traditional political parties are would seize opportunities provided by social media for an upgrade.
It turns out our political parties uninterested in an upgrade. They saw in new media a terrain and means to perpetuate black propaganda and other antics of traditional politics.
Thanks to the Senate hearing, we see more clearly the Duterte strategy of confusing the public, corrupting the discourse, and crushing dissent — in aid of establishing a tyranny — and so we must have a strategy as well in exposing, fighting and defeating it.