Duterte Arrested, Extradited to ICC: Disinformation Campaign Paints Arrest as "Kidnapping"
On March 11th, a seismic event shook the Philippines: former President Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila and transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The ICC warrant alleges Duterte’s criminal responsibility for the deaths of at least 43 individuals between 2011 and 2019, linked to his controversial "war on drugs." This campaign, launched after Duterte assumed the presidency in 2016, was marked by his chilling disregard for human rights and a vow to eradicate the country’s drug problem, even at the cost of thousands of lives. By the end of his term in 2022, human rights groups and the ICC estimated the death toll to be near 30,000. Duterte’s 2019 withdrawal of the Philippines from the ICC did not shield him from the court’s investigation, culminating in his arrest.
The hours following Duterte’s arrest saw the rapid deployment of a sophisticated disinformation campaign across social media, framing his extradition as a politically motivated "kidnapping." Filipino journalist Cristina Chi, reporting for Philstar.com, uncovered a coordinated network of over 200 Facebook accounts and pages disseminating identical messages echoing this narrative. This "copypasta" tactic, as disinformation researchers term it, involved the simultaneous posting of identical text across the internet, creating an illusion of widespread organic support for the "kidnapping" theory. Chi’s investigation meticulously documented the spread of this disinformation, revealing the orchestrated nature of the campaign.
Chi’s work highlights the challenges of combating disinformation in the digital age. The use of seemingly authentic accounts, interspersed with genuine user profiles, complicates the task of identifying coordinated inauthentic behavior. It requires painstaking analysis of account characteristics, posting patterns, and message content to discern the coordinated manipulation from genuine expressions of support. Chi’s manual approach, necessitated by limited resources and the demise of free monitoring tools like CrowdTangle, involved using Facebook’s search function to track down instances of the "kidnapping" narrative. She meticulously documented each post, screenshotting them as evidence against potential deletion, and analyzing the accounts involved.
The proliferation of these narratives, often using the phrase "CTTO" (credits to the owner) to indicate reposting, created an echo chamber reinforcing the "kidnapping" narrative. This tactic exploits the Philippines’ weak media literacy landscape, making it challenging for individuals to distinguish between credible information and coordinated disinformation campaigns. The cumulative impact of such a blitzkrieg can be significant, especially for those without strong political convictions, swaying public opinion against the legitimacy of Duterte’s arrest and the ICC’s authority.
Philstar.com has a history of exposing influence operations, both domestic and foreign. Their previous investigations have uncovered pro-China networks disseminating disinformation about the South China Sea dispute, portraying the Philippines as the aggressor and sowing discord within the country. They have also exposed attempts to discredit the Commission on Elections and demonize Afghan refugees. These investigations underscore the multifaceted nature of disinformation campaigns, often blending domestic political agendas with foreign influence.
Chi’s work offers valuable lessons for journalists covering misinformation. She emphasizes that simply fact-checking is insufficient when dealing with narratives that manipulate facts to create a misleading picture. The focus should be on exposing the coordinated nature of these campaigns and educating the public about the tactics used to manipulate their perceptions. Chi’s meticulous methodology, despite limited resources, demonstrates the power of dedicated investigative journalism in uncovering hidden networks of disinformation. Her work serves as a call for greater media literacy and critical thinking in the face of manipulative online narratives. Her manual collection and analysis of the posts highlights the challenges faced by journalists, particularly in resource-constrained environments, in battling the tide of disinformation and emphasizes the importance of adapting methods in the ever-evolving digital landscape.