# Dont Believe Everything- Politicians hired consultants to spread fake stories.
On Monday, Filipino voters will elect the country's president-elect, lying to many truths and social media.
"I think of myself as a troll, or, politically speaking, a social media marketing consultant."
John could be crucial in the election of the next president of the Philippines, not his real name. Is part of an industry.
He says he works most days from 10am to 3am and manages hundreds of Facebook pages and fake profiles on behalf of client politicians and their campaigns.
His clients include the governor, the House of Representatives, and the mayor, he says.
On Monday, Filipino voters go to vote to choose their next president along with some lower office candidates. This is the first presidential election since the victory of Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, and critics say it was achieved behind a wave of fake news. According to
election observers and disinformation experts, the situation has not improved and may be even worse.
Disinformation systems
John is part of this disinformation ecosystem. He says he has about 30 "trolls" working directly for him. Their goal is to increase customer support, even if that means spreading the truth. He says he has been working under radar for years. Sometimes they are looking for what he calls a "skeleton in the closet". This is a fairly typical opposition survey. But at other times they make things up.
"In 2013, I spread fake news in one of the states I was in charge of," he explains how to trick his client's opponents. "We got the mobile phone number of the top politician, bought it in Photoshop and sent a text message saying that he was looking for a lover impersonating him. In the end, my client won. ."
To prove the credibility of his claim, videos were sent to the BBC on various accounts John is running on Facebook, screenshots of WhatsApp messages between him and the people he works for, banks. The bank statement, fake ID, SIM card used to bypass Facebook was sent The verification process was used.
We keep his identity anonymous because of concerns about his safety.
Another trick he uses is to create non-political sites and groups that will distribute political promotions. Facebook-owned
Meta says it has shut down many networks in the Philippines trying to manipulate people, including more than 400 accounts, pages, and groups of groups that violated policies.
'Open secret'
In the lead up to the country`s vote, many candidates have aired concerns about the role that disinformation could play in the outcome.
In an interview with a Filipino news channel, presidential candidate Leni Robredo said her initial approach to the problem of fake news to ignore it "did not work".
She added: "Lies repeated again and again become the truth."
Another presidential candidate, former boxer Manny Pacquiao, has spoken about the need to "control" fake news and disinformation.
"What we've seen is a catandmouse game between platforms, fact checkers and academics trying to expose these kinds of disinformation operators, and [the operators] finding ways to evade detection," says Jonathan Corpus Ong, an associate professor and disinformation researcher at Harvard University.
In 2018, Ong coauthored a report based on a year of anonymous interviews with strategists and digital workers behind false news stories in the Philippines.
He claims that there is a hierarchy of people involved in disinformation, starting with advertising and PR strategists calling shots, and rallying influential people and fake account operators.
Ong claims that who these people are is "open secret", even though payments to them are made "off the books".
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