Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 12) — Half of the Senate filed on Monday a resolution calling for an investigation into reports of funds from state coffers being used to finance alleged troll farms spreading misinformation and fake news online.
Senate President Tito Sotto, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon joined Senators Kiko Pangilinan, Nancy Binay, Leila De Lima, Richard Gordon, Risa Hontiveros, Ping Lacson, Manny Pacquiao, Grace Poe and Joel Villanueva in filing Senate Resolution No. 768.
It orders the appropriate Senate committee to hold an inquiry in aid of legislation into the said reports, as troll farms proliferate such false content in social media platforms.
The resolution recalled how Lacson earlier alleged a government undersecretary has been mobilizing internet troll farms nationwide against political rivals or those not aligned with President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration — something the Palace denied.
The senators also cited the Department of Finance’s award of a ₱909,000 communication strategy consultant contract to the suspected operator of “inauthentic” Facebook pages behind Duterte’s online campaign in the 2016 polls.
The DOF has since defended the contract as “legal and aboveboard.”
The Senate resolution also mentioned a similar occurrence with the Foreign Affairs Department in 2017, where it had a “similar social media consultancy contract with a known pro-administration blogger” accused of spreading fake news and hateful comments against the regime’s critics.
Such instances “illustrate that troll farms and the misinformation and fake news that they propagate may be state-backed and state-funded,” read the resolution.
“Filipinos should know why government spends public funds on troll farm operators disguised as ‘public relations practitioners’ and ‘social media consultants’ who sow fake news rather than on COVID-19 assistance, healthcare, food security, jobs protection, education, among others,” it further said.
LOOK: Twelve senators, or half of the Senate, file resolution seeking legislative investigation on reports public funds are being used to operate "troll farms" that spread misinformation and fake news on social media. | @eimorpsantos pic.twitter.com/HTVruXxhtu
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) July 12, 2021
