Philippines election: 'Politicians hire me to spread fake stories'
On Monday, electorate within the Philippines will pick the nation's subsequent president - amid a tide of falsehoods and social media lies.
"I don't forget myself a troll - or, politically speakme, I'm a social media advertising representative."
Jon - now not his real name - is a part of an industry that could be crucial to the selection of the next president of the Philippines.
He says he's been working maximum days from 10:00 to 03:00, handling masses of Facebook pages and fake profiles for the gain of his customers - politicians and their campaigns.
He says his customers include governors, congressmen and mayors.
On Monday, Filipino citizens will go to the polls to pick their next president, at the side of applicants for several lower places of work. It's the first presidential election in view that Rodrigo Duterte's triumph in 2016 - one which critics say turned into done at the lower back of a wave of fake news.
According to election observers and disinformation specialists, the situation hasn't advanced due to the fact that - in truth, it may have even were given worse.
Disinformation structures
Jon is a part of this disinformation surroundings. He says he has round 30 "trolls" operating without delay for him. Their purpose is to reinforce guide for his or her customers, even supposing it manner spreading falsehoods. He says he is been operating below the radar for years. Sometimes they are trying to find what he calls "skeletons inside the closet" - fairly typical competition research. But at different instances, they make things up.
"In 2013, we spread faux news in one of the provinces I became managing," he says, describing how he set up his consumer's opponent. "We got the top baby-kisser's cellular cellphone quantity and image-shopped it, then despatched out a text message pretending to be him, pronouncing he changed into searching out a mistress. Eventually, my client won."Another presidential candidate, former boxer Manny Pacquiao, has spoken about the want to "control" fake information and disinformation.
"What we've got visible is a cat-and-mouse sport between systems, fact-checkers and lecturers attempting to reveal those kinds of disinformation operators, and [the operators] finding ways to stay away from detection," says Jonathan Corpus Ong, an companion professor and disinformation researcher at Harvard University.
In 2018, Ong co-authored a record based on a 12 months of nameless interviews with strategists and digital employees at the back of false information testimonies in the Philippines.
He argues that there is a hierarchy of people worried in disinformation - beginning with marketing and PR strategists who call the shots and bring together influencers and pretend account operators.
Ong claims that it is an "open mystery" who these people are, whilst payments to them are made "off the books".