Metro Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — Social media didn’t matter before in elections but since 2016, campaigns have been defined by how platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have been used to try and steer political conversations to a candidate’s advantage or disadvantage.
In the study “Tracking Digital Disinformation in the 2019 Philippine Midterm Election,” authors Jonathan Corpus Ong, Ross Tapsell, and Nicole Curato presented a more detailed view of how social media has played a huge part in digital campaign strategies — from digital disinformation, tapping micro-influencers, to imposter news channels.
Ahead of the 2022 presidential elections, there are already rumblings of possible poll strategies using social media. This time in particular, it involves buying fan pages of well-known celebrities who are affected by the ABS-CBN shutdown.
In July, Bea Alonzo posted a series of Instagram Stories that detail how she had received messages from her fans, warning her about strangers offering to buy her fan pages for unknown reasons. Other ABS-CBN stars also allegedly received offers to buy their fan pages, just as the Kapamilya network was on its last legs, as if vultures were swarming over a fresh carcass.
In light of this issue, some political pages were found to be previously fan pages or non-political platforms. Representative Luis Raymond “Lray” Villafuerte’s Facebook page was once Jake Vargas page and his son Migz Villafuerte’s page was originally named “Mcdonald’s Sexret files.”
According to cybersecurity experts, this phenomenon could be a strategy to prepare for the 2022 general elections. But this isn’t a new practice, according to Lisa Garcia of Foundation of Media Alternatives. “There were already reports that during the previous elections, some K-pop pages were used to help boost the popularity and the campaign of some candidates,” she said. Buying established fan pages could allow any aspiring candidate to easily post any information they want and reach thousands of possible voters overnight without having to struggle to build an audience. The number of likes on the old Page could also be used as proof of the candidate’s popularity on social media, even if its Likers did not consent to the name change.
For example, Mocha Uson stated in a BBC interview that her social media numbers attested to the popularity and support of President Rodrigo Duterte: “On my Facebook I have 4.4 million followers and the engagement is as high as 3.6 or 3.7 million.” These numbers have been built up over the course of six years on her personal Facebook Page. However, if an aspiring political candidate were to buy a Page with a following as huge as Uson’s, the social media numbers could be used to create a perception of a big fanbase and sway voters to decide in his or her favor.
After all, the current Philippine administration is no stranger to using Facebook for its political agenda. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the 2016 Philippine presidential elections were a prime example of the power of social media, where Rodrigo Duterte was hailed as the “undisputed king of Facebook conversations,” dominating 64 percent of election-related conversations on the social media platform. His campaign managers crafted a strong social media strategy banking on amplifying channels through the distribution of key messages scattered across the Philippines and even among OFWs. Soon, these groups and pages with thousands of followers became part of the machinery that either produced or distributed propaganda.
“I would say that buying a fan page and converting that into your personal page is a lazy way of growing one’s online constituency,” said Garcia. “The followers in that page are not even your friends, you don’t even know most, if not all, of them, much less know what these people want.”
Beyond elections, page-buying can also be a way to scam people through malicious links or phishing personal details by misrepresenting a brand. For example, if a clothing Page you regularly buy from sells its ownership without announcing it, the new page owners can pretend to conduct legitimate sales with the goal of swindling you and other customers.
For owners of pages who are being propositioned for their accounts, Garcia cautions against the dangers of selling these off: “Celebrities and influencers who have hundreds of thousands or millions of followers should be wary of selling their accounts because these might be used for other purposes, including hacking, trolling, and committing crime.”
In fact, buying a page to substantially change its purpose is against Facebook’s own Page, Groups and Events Policies. Section 10 states that, “Name changes and merges must not result in a misleading or unintended connection and must not substantially change the Page’s subject matter.”
So what should you do?
We usually just hit ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ on a page while mindlessly checking out our invite notifications, and then leave it forever. A lot of people don’t prune their Liked Pages list as carefully as their Friends list, so there’s not a lot of unfollowing or unliking going on. Knowing that these things are happening in the background should make us more alert about our behavior when we interact with Pages on social media. Here are some tips on how to do that:
Be wary of unfamiliar names on your news feed
Ever scroll down and see a post from a page name you don’t recognize? Always double check these pages and see if they were something you actually remember liking. If not, you can decide whether or not you want to keep liking them.
Review your Liked Pages regularly
Set aside time to go through your list of liked Pages so that you can see if there’s anything amiss. It can also be a good opportunity to lessen the noise on your news feed for things you aren’t that interested in anymore.
Check the history of your Liked Pages
Facebook has implemented changes to increase the transparency of page histories so that we can always be aware of any changes at any given time. To check a page’s history, head over to the page’s timeline and scroll down to the Page Transparency section on the sidebar. Click See All and you’ll access a wealth of information such as name changes, the date the page was made, or where the admins are located.
Don’t share or post your personal information on Pages
Be careful of the information you share when messaging Facebook Pages. We can often be nonchalant in giving out details such as our address, mobile numbers, and IDs, especially when interacting with buy and sell Pages or customer support accounts. But who knows who can see this information in the future if the Page is sold off or the administrators change? Try using a different channel, such as email or phone call, to contact the Page owner instead.
Be more discerning of who you follow
To avoid having to go through so many accounts, be more intentional in choosing the Pages that you like and how you interact with them. If you’re on the fence about liking a Page or have doubts about the integrity of the Page owners, it’s better not to like it. After all, your Facebook Likes are not necessarily representative of your preferences in real life.
So you’ve been going through your Likes and discovered a huge identity change. What should you do?
You may opt to report a changed Page to Facebook for takedown. To do so, visit the Page’s timeline then click the button that looks like an ellipsis. Select “Find support or report Page,” “Fake Page,” and “Misleading Page Name Change” as the reason for takedown if you believe this is the case.
If you have a lot of friends who also like the Page, you can alert them to the shift through a wall post so that they can make an informed decision whether to keep liking the Page.
Ultimately, however, the responsibility for policing these name changes should be on the social media platforms’ shoulders. Facebook and other social sites should create and implement more stringent rules to monitor the buying and selling Pages, as well as immediately respond to any reports of fake pages. There should also be an option to report individuals trying to engineer Page sales, not just reporting fake Pages when their names have already been changed. If a politician has been found to mislead netizens by buying an unrelated fan page, they should be removed as admins of the Page and the Page itself should be shut down. In a time when fake news and disinformation are rampant, it is important to protect the way we engage with social media, so that everyone feels safe in the online communities they create.
