BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • BBC Trending

Trolls and triumph: a digital battle in the Philippines

  • Published
    7 December 2016
Share page
About sharing
Media caption,

By BBC Trending
What's popular and why

This year, an authoritarian, anti-establishment firebrand, famed for his controversial statements and uncompromising stance on law and order, won a presidential election with the help of a divisive, innovative social media campaign.

No, not Donald Trump, but President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines.

During his campaign Duterte, nicknamed "The Punisher", promised harsh punishment for those suspected of using and selling illegal drugs.

Dealers, he said, would be "fed to the fish in Manila Bay." (And that was not his only threat - here's a few of his most notable quotes). Many attributed his popularity to his straight talk, but something else also helped Duterte secure the presidency - social media.

Maria Ressa, founder of the Filipino social news site Rappler, has investigated the machine built by the Duterte campaign.

"Duterte was the only candidate who took it seriously," she says of the power of social networking. "They (his campaign) claimed it was because they had no money and social media is essentially free."

That idea is backed up by the man who steered the president's strategy, former advertising executive Nic Gabunada.

"When we realised we didn't have money for TV, radio, print, billboards etc, we made the decision to tap up the social media groups," Gabunada says, "How did we organise them? We reached out to them, we assigned co-ordinators."

Those co-ordinators were in charge of particular geographic regions of the country and one group was devoted to Filipino workers overseas. Each group received targeted, bespoke messages, relevant to their own immediate experience.

"During the campaign we had a 'message for the week'. It was really up to each group to amplify that message to their own circles and to craft how that message is best framed in their own networks," Gabunada says.

Du30Image source, Twitter
Image caption,

A mobile phone game showing President Duterte combating crime in the streets has been downloaded thousands of times.

With the help of those overseas workers, Gabunada was able to make the Duterte machine work 24 hours a day.

"Late at night the people from abroad, the (workers) in a different time zone took over, people from Europe, people from down under, or the Middle East," he says,

The campaign also rallied the help of high profile digital influencers, and using the hashtag #Du30 (a hashtag that rhymes with the president's name).

The influencers were chosen for their connections to messages central to the Duterte campaign.

"Some of them have very real experience of how crime has affected or destroyed their lives," says Gabunada, "like Mocha, whose father was murdered."

The "Mocha" he's talking about is Mocha Uson, one of the biggest and most controversial faces in the Duterte volunteer network.

She's a Filipino singer with more than four million Facebook followers. She released songs supporting the president during the campaign and her group played at Duterte rallies.

Pop star Mocha Uson became one of Duterte's most famous - and controversial - volunteers
Image caption,

Pop star Mocha Uson became one of Duterte's most famous - and controversial - volunteers

"I uploaded the videos of his rallies," she tells BBC Trending. "And it is only through social media that Filipinos saw how many people actually supported him, because they didn't show that on the mainstream media."

Uson put up 20 to 30 political posts a day. One photo she shared claimed to be of a Filipina who was raped and murdered - but the picture was actually taken in Brazil. She later took it down.

line

More reporting on the Philippines from the BBC Trending team

Listen to Trolls, 'the Devil', and Death on the BBC World Service

Watch Manila's brutal nightshift: the photographer on the front line of Duterte's war on drugs

Read No country for poor men: the human cost of the anti-drugs campaign

line

Mocha tells BBC Trending that she's also willing to hold the government to account, but it's not totally clear Nic Gabunada sees her in the same way.

"Filipinos are like that actually, as long they are able to get your message, they will work for you," he says, "I have a term for that. Arouse, organise, mobilise. That's the secret."

Rappler founder Maria Ressa agrees, but says that one intriguing aspect of the Duterte campaign is that it didn't end with his election victory.

"Most of the time you'd think when you win, you retire your campaign machinery, but not in this case. The campaign helped change values and perceptions in our society and we're watching it unfold in the first months of his presidency."

Rappler investigated online networks of Duterte supporters and discovered that they seem to include fake news, fake accounts, bots and trolls, which Ressa thinks are being used to silence dissent.

line

Follow BBC Trending on Facebook

Join the conversation on this and other stories here, external.

line

"What we're seeing on social media again is manufactured reality... They also create a very real chilling effect against normal people, against journalists (who) are the first targets," she says, "and they attack in very personal ways with death threats and rape threats.

"The weaponisation of hatred I think is what you're seeing."

In spite of my dirty mouth I'll give you a clean governmentImage source, TWITTER

Indeed, journalists in the Philippines critical of the Duterte campaign were subject to online intimidation.

"Even at press conferences, which are televised live... journalists get immediate responses if they ask any question that challenges him," says Ressa, "and the responses are 'you should die', 'you should get raped'."

Ressa says that the messages often appear to originate from pro-Duterte accounts and are then amplified through the Duterte support network in order to create a powerful wave of dissent against those that challenge the president.

But the notion that fake or troll accounts are driving the president's social media machine is denied by Mocha Uson. She points to her huge numbers of fans as proof that Duterte's support is real.

"On my Facebook I have 4.4 million followers and the engagement is as high as 3.6 or 3.7 million. Maybe (critics) are the ones who have these trolls or bots or fake accounts."

Duterte drawings, murals and memes were shared widely online
Image caption,

Duterte drawings, murals and memes were shared widely online

Nic Gabunada points out that dirty tricks were not exclusive to some of the president's supporters.

"It happened not just from Duterte but from other camps," he says. "You cannot expect to control all people in the social media sphere, people have been given a weapon and a medium where they can express themselves, so you should understand this is a whole volunteer movement, you cannot control everybody."

Blog by Kate Lamble and Megha Mohan

You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

Next story: The dad who asked for donations - even though he's well-off

Charity heartImage source, Thinkstock

A row has erupted on social media in China over a father who raised money for his sick child without disclosing what some people argued were substantial assets of his own.READ MORE

You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, external, and find us on Facebook, external. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

Top stories

  • Live. 

    UN warns malnutrition surging in Gaza as Starmer suggests UK to help with aid air drops

    • 2775 viewing2.8k viewing
  • Trump says 'great to be in Scotland', as he lands for four-day trip

    • Published
      10 hours ago
  • Gregg Wallace 'sorry' but says he's 'not a groper'

    • Published
      7 hours ago

More to explore

  • Why we need to talk about periods, breasts and injuries in women's sport

    Two England players with faces full of joy and wide smiles, both wearing dark blue short sleeve team shirts. With one's blonde pony tile flying wildly.
  • 'Don't look away' and 'Prostate patients ignored by NHS'

    The front page of the Daily Mirror and The Daily Telegraph
  • How reality TV changed the way we think - for the better

    A treated image showing an old TV screen with a close up eye
  • Sleep, run, hydrate - should you be a stickler for recommended daily doses?

    A woman wearing black leggings and pink athletic shoes, standing on a set of black steps. One foot is placed on a higher step while the other remains on a lower one, suggesting an exercise or stretching.
  • ​​What is inside the GHF food aid box being distributed in Gaza?

    An image showing a young man carrying an box of aid with the GHF logo emblazoned on it. He is wearing a dark shirt with Nike Air written on it. Several other people are walking alongside him, and the image is imposed over the BBC Verify branding and colours.
  • School-leavers losing their lives for Russia in Putin's war with Ukraine

    Separate photos of two boys, one in a white judo outfit and the other a black tracksuit top
  • French pledge to recognise Palestine is a gamble - so will Starmer follow suit?

    Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron
  • How Epstein case is tearing apart Maga's online conspiracy wing

    Red hats with Donald Trump's Maga logo are handed out at an event
  • Why is River Island in trouble?

    A group of young people walk past a River Island store with sale signs in the window
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    'My dad started spying on my mum' - the drugs causing sexual urges

  2. 2

    World's thirst for matcha dries up global supplies

  3. 3

    'Don't look away' and 'Prostate patients ignored by NHS'

  4. 4

    Trump says 'great to be in Scotland', as he lands for four-day trip

  5. 5

    Gregg Wallace 'sorry' but says he's 'not a groper'

  6. 6

    School-leavers losing their lives for Russia in Putin's war with Ukraine

  7. 7

    Why we need to talk about periods, breasts and injuries in women's sport

  8. 8

    Starmer suggests UK will play role in new Gaza aid air drops

  9. 9

    UK condemns Hong Kong cash offer for help in arresting activists

  10. 10

    Southwest flight plummets, injuring flight attendants

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Best of the BBC

  • New drama from writer Jimmy McGovern

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Unforgivable
  • The Bafta award-winning comedy returns

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Such Brave Girls
  • An epic road trip across Vietnam

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Top Gear
  • Amol Rajan and Billy Bragg chat politics

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Radical with Amol Rajan
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.