Gaming democracy
nologies is now available to give propaganda work a different spin. Whereas in traditional political operations, including black ops, the army that is used consisted of actual warm bodies that need to be paid to be deployed as crowds in political rallies or as campaigners, or even as political assassins, in the age of social media, - tious or fake accounts in Facebook and Twitter to simulate not only the breadth and depth of supposed support, but also to be deployed to do battle with the other side. Political assassination has taken on a new meaning by converting it into trolling and Internet bashing, and the ease by which one can create anonymous accounts has turned even organically real people into anonymous trolls.
I cannot overemphasize the fact that this is a strategy that is not the monopoly of the administration, but is resorted to by the opposition. In fact, in the current climate of political - ures in social media are hiding behind anonymous accounts.
It is, however, interesting to note a new phenomenon that has emerged in the age of the Internet, and of cyber-mediated political contestations. This can be found in the emergence of social media bloggers who gain autonomy from serving the political interests of their principals, and have reversed the logic and turned social media blogging into a commodity and reinvented themselves into merchants of cyber
Armed with the technological familiarity that enables them to increase their likers, followers and viewers by purchasing these through different third-party applications, this new breed of political operators can manufacture their popularity and imagined of them can use this for future plans to run in politics, while others can use this as leverage to secure accounts of political candidates. Political marketing has taken on a new face so that in addition to strategic thinking and a keen eye for political combat, there is now the new tool of gaming social media to have the appearance of phenomenal engagements.
But just like the traditional ways where one who wins by fraud, even if electronically done, can easily be unmasked by an electoral protest, someone who manufacturing Internet reach can easily be unmasked as well.
Vice President Leni Robredo could lose her seat when and if it is shown that her votes were electronically padded. Likewise, the powers of purchasers of likes and views will evaporate once it is shown that majority of their followers are in fact bots. The thing about these electronic fraudsters using technology is that they can also be unmasked by using technology.