Trolls & Tyrants: End the Weaponization of Social Media
in march 2016, a University of Philippines- Los Baños student questioned Duterte’s indirect answers, a criticism his own team recognized.
However, trolls threatened the news site Rappler, attacked the wrong student, and tracked others, finding their phone numbers and creating Facebook pages to make death threats.
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In 2021, Malaya Movement USA began its End the Weaponization of Social Media campaign with goals that include spreading awareness of the dangers and impacts of red-tagging and harassment by the Philippine government. Red-tagging or terror-tagging is a tactic that aligns individuals or organizations with communism or terrorism, making them targets for doxxing and death. Victims of red-tagging are often progressive activists but can include journalists, lawyers, doctors, and indigenous land defenders.
Keeping with Malaya’s points of unity as well as our general points of action, we charge the Duterte administration with fascism, violating Filipinos’ right to expression and safety. Democratic rights were previously curtailed with the passing of the Anti-Terror Law.
Silencing dissent and manufacturing a different reality is a manipulation. Stand for Filipino dignity by joining Malaya and our campaign today!
Open Letter to Meta/Facebook
Malaya Movement USA calls on Facebook and Meta Platforms to take immediate action in light of the upcoming elections in the Philippines and the red-tagging. Concrete and swift steps must be taken in order to mitigate the spread of disinformation and misinformation during the election season in the Philippines, and to prevent further endangerment of individuals through the use of terror-tagging via Facebook.
filipinos & Facebook
45% of Filipinos are on Facebook
48 million accounts
99% of internet users have an account
31% use social media to share political or social issues content
Consistently in top news sources
with the closure of abs-cbn and free data access to facebook, the social media giant has major influence on philippine politics and society. lacking regulation and accountability, duterte and facebook are responsible for the suffering of filipinos moderating gruesome content as well as real-world impacts of coordinated disinformation efforts.
NEWS + updates
BROWSE BY HASHTAGS
FACEBOOK DUTERTE BONGBONG MARCOS PH ONLINE TROLLS HISTORICAL REVISIONISM MEDIA LITERACY
“Facebook’s goal as a company that seeks to make money for shareholders is to make sure that people stay on its platform as long as possible and read as many posts as possible so that they can sell as many ads as possible at a higher price.”
— Dr. Jeffrey Herbst,
President and CEO of the Newseum
“Facebook is a system, and systems express moral and ethical behavior through what they incentivise and what behavior they disincentivize.”
— Stephanie Sy, technologist
cost of ‘free’
Despite Facebook offering “free” services, or, working with Internet providers to waive data charges on it, the company is worth $1 trillion. Due to its popularity and collection of user data, ads on Facebook are likely to be seen by users and generate sales for advertisers. The same can be said with political campaigns.
MEDIA LITERACY
One of the best tools to combat disinformation and propaganda— along with critical thinking— is media literacy. Media literacy is being able recognize different types of media and understand the messages being sent. This skill will help develop the reasoning needed to determine credible information and share content responsibly.
guiding questions
Who created this?
Why did they make it?
Who is the message for?
How is this made to seem credible? (techniques)
What details were left out? Why?
How did the message make you feel?
Media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages that they’re sending.
Media includes TV, newspapers, magazines, text messaging, memes, viral videos, social media, video games, and advertising.
Advertisers rely on emotional response rather than reader rationality to generate engagement (clicks, screen time) and income.
Filipinos are susceptible to media propaganda when we’re not aware of how it operates including how it appeals to readers/consumers.
This can lead to belief in and acceptance of “fake news” which has cause real world violence.
what happens when Filipinos lack media literacy?
When people take messaging like memes, advertising, or even anecdotal posts at its face value, they can not only fall victim to the ideology used but spread it as well. If digital rights are not take seriously, powerful entities like Facebook and the Duterte government are allowed to endanger Filipinos by red-tagging and imprisonment without concern of being held responsible.
ENDANGERING & DEFLECTING
who is putting Filipinos at risk
uphold the people’s right to information
Take action toward a Philippines free of corruption and foreign inference!
Join Malaya’s campaign today and get involved through:
Media literacy education
Holding the PH government responsible for its weaponization of social media
Bring red-tagged people into dialogue with Facebook