The Philippine media has been accusing the Duterte administration of having an army of online trolls to help spread his propaganda. They continue to accuse the administration of using tax payer money to hire online influencers for the sole purpose of spreading state propaganda online. These allegations are made constantly without showing any clear proof of such a tax payer funded and organized online propaganda machine. All we have so far from the mainstream media are speculations and allegations.
Do I believe that Duterte has an army of paid online trolls? To answer that question I had to ask myself, why would one need to hire an army of online trolls in the first place? The only reason I can think of is to ensure my message gets to the public. So the only reason why Duterte would hire an army of online troll is to ensure that his message gets to his base. Not only does he need to get his message to his base but he has to make sure the right message gets to his base, the kind of message that resonates with his base.
So what has been Duterte’s key message to the public ever since the election campaign period? That he will cleanse our streets of drug addicts even if it means killing thousands of criminals who do not surrender to the law. He was upfront and frank about this message. Now the next question is, how do we hear about Duterte’s threats to criminals? How do we hear about the typical Duterte brand of messaging? Do we hear it from bloggers? Are stories about his strong stance against drugs and criminality promoted by online influencers? No. The mainstream media has been the main source of Duterte quotes about his threats to criminals. Media outfits in the Philippines seem to be jostling to get the most outrageous Duterte quote published faster than the others to get ahead of the social media buzz. Just do a simple Google News search of “Duterte” and you will be inundated with news items with outrageous headlines about Duterte. Whenever Duterte says something even a little controversial the media goes on a feeding frenzy and therefore further accelerating the spread of Duterte’s message. Most of what pro-Duterte bloggers do is defend him against unfair media spin but the story is almost always started by the mainstream media.
With all the media attention Duterte gets and the eagerness and willingness of journalists to catch him with a controversial statement, Duterte does not need an army of online trolls. The media is spreading his message willingly because of a serious miscalculation on their end. Duterte knows how to use them to his advantage. Duterte knows the kind of message that resonates with his base and he knows that it is the same kind of message mainstream media thinks will damage Duterte’s political base. Duterte is simply using mainstream media as a pawn in his game so I really do not see any reason why Duterte would even bother to pay for an army of online trolls when the mainstream media and traditional journalists themselves are willing to troll for him.
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