The Philippine media is very surprisingly silent about the recent revelations of Sass and RJ Nieto about a coordinated online campaign of the Liberal Party to discredit the Duterte administration. The recent Cocoy Gate revelations is very interesting not only for the intrigue behind it but more importantly about what it means about the opposition and about the state of Philippine journalism.
The Philippine media has been very rabid in criticizing and discrediting bloggers in social media branding them all as trolls and purveyors of fake news. They have conducted summits to discuss online trolls and their influence on the electorate and have even called on congress to regulate the influence of bloggers. The Liberal Party Ninoy cosplayer Bam Aquino even launched a senate hearing on trolls and invited prominent members of the media to air their concerns and get their input on how to stifle online free speech. They have published numerous news articles, editorials and opinion pieces accusing the Duterte administration of running a well funded army of online trolls based on a dubious study. Not one of the Liberal party aligned lawmaker or media outfit has ever been able to show clear evidence of a coordinated online troll campaign that is linked directly to the administration. Not only do they not have any proof but they do not bother to look for proof because uncertainty and obfuscation works best for them. This is a key hallmark of a propaganda campaign – be specific enough about your accusation to illicit a response but do not give details.
If the Philippine media is indeed worried about the influence of online trolls then they should be actively seeking to pin-down an online troll farm and set an example for everyone. Now that Sass and RJ Nieto have uncovered an obviously coordinated and linked online troll farm of anonymous pages, the Philippine media should jump on this story and use their “expertise” and “resource” to expose such a cancer of our society. Instead they are very silent. Their silence says a lot and shows the true nature of Philippine journalism. They are not concerned about online trolls. They are only concerned about online support for Duterte. They are only concerned about dominating the online conversation and stir it to their agenda – to discredit the Duterte administration. The online troll farm that Sass and RJ Nieto have uncovered is not pro-Duterte so the media is trying to discredit this revelation but giving it the cold shoulder. If the media was quick to sensationalize the Oxford study claiming to show that Duterte spent millions for a troll army, then they should be even more interested in CocoyGate since it shows a link between Liberal Party lawmakers and a coordinated online troll farm spreading fake news about Duterte. This is a huge story and a great way for them to reinforce their crusade against fake news and online trolls.
Since the mainstream media is not interested in this revelation, it is then up to us to spread the truth about who is funding, coordinating and spreading fake new in social media. The prominent pro-Duterte social media personalities are all identifiable – Mocha, Sass and RJ Nieto just to name a few. The prominent anti-Duterte social media personalities are all anonymous. Now that we have a chance to unmask them we have to ramp up our campaign to spread the word since the Philippine mainstream media is corrupt, inept and worthless.
Here is a link to RJ Nieto’s most recent post on CocoyGate.
Here is a link to Sass Sasot’s Manila Times article about CocoyGate.
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