Facebook users, Meta might be sabotaging your election decisions

Written by Julian Victor M. Mendoza

Published April 30, 2022

The Philippines has less than two weeks to decide which candidates will take the seats of power for the next six years. Political contenders are doing everything to reach millions of audiences, especially registered voters, with their names, propaganda, and promises.

Social media has been one of the most promising instruments to achieve that. In the country, there were 83.85 million Facebook users in early 2022, according to data from Meta's advertising resources.

Social media is a perfect way to influence youth decision-making on who to vote for. Aside from being the largest scale of Facebook users, the youth vote accounts for 56% of the upcoming election, which is 4% higher compared to COMELEC's initial projection.

According to database company Statista, the recorded largest group of Facebook users are people from ages 18 to 24 in 2019, the age group included in what the United Nations (UN) considers as "youth."

However, there is a dirty play going on behind the cyber-political competition. The escalation of posts spreading disinformation and misinformation has led to the increase of engagements received by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. Therefore, false information actually benefits this company.

Big social networks such as Facebook lean on the efficiency of "surveillance capitalism," a term coined by Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff. It pertains to an economic system wherein personal data, such as your personal information and online activities, are gathered and sold for profit. Moderated by computers, the system is unable to determine which data is harmful to the audience.

Disinformation and misinformation are parts of data they could use as content that users can consume for free. By consuming them, users contribute to the increase of engagement rate on Facebook, which attracts advertisers to market their products on the social network. In simple terms, Facebook keeps an eye on your activities and uses your data for profit without you knowing about it.

Multiple analysts suggest that it was the core reason why Facebook algorithms allowed the spread of harmful extremist ideologies, conspiracy theories, and false information during the 2016 US elections, wherein false claims about Hillary Clinton, the rival of the former US President Donald Trump, have been disseminated to thousands of Facebook accounts, pages, and groups days before the election by trolls and fake accounts.

In Myanmar, Facebook has failed to stop harassment and public deception from political leaders who reportedly used the social network to "foment division and incite offline violence" in 2018, according to the official report of The Guardian in their investigation of the incident.

The dissemination of fake news could be observed again in the ongoing campaign period of Philippine candidates on social networks. Hundreds of troll accounts and false information can give a pleasant image or spread damaging and unethical rumors about a candidate. According to a slide show presentation by Chloe Poynton, co-founder, and principal of Article One, the result from 87% of respondents from the agency's research report shows that misinformation and disinformation were the most widely reported concerns from both stakeholders and Meta users.

Vice President Leni Robreno, one of the presidential candidates,, has been targeted the most by fake news peddlers and troll accounts out of all the presidential aspirants, especially now that she has momentum in her campaign.

The Facebook team has so far removed over 400 accounts, pages, and groups that "violated" their community standards and evaded enforcement, including the account of Atty. Vic Rodriguez, chief of staff and spokesman of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., a presidential candidate known for his attempts of historical distortion to improve the image of his family. .

However, it does not solve the problem of political illiteracy. For instance, numerous organizations, including the Guinness World Records, have commented and reacted to numerous fake information that Marcos Jr. claimed on his official Facebook account. Meta, in this case, might label his account as a "fake news peddler." However, it is not libelous because he only aimed to make his reputation and image pleasant. He, in this situation, has no intention to damage other people's reputations. This type of logic reflects a weak constitution on the defective moral ground of Filipino politicians. This also takes advantage of the poor comprehensive community of voters.

If Meta cannot wholly take action against misinformation and disinformation, then Facebook fact-checkers will fall short in solving the problem of fake news. Elimination of 400 accounts, pages, and groups over millions of existing possible "cyber-criminals" cannot solve the issue overnight.

Remember that we have only less than two weeks before the elections. Limited solutions would result in limited answers. Facebook should do investigations and deeper analysis of its content because computer algorithms are insubstantial. After all, if the problem of misinformation and disinformation continues, more people will be intellectually victimized by delusions and illusions that blind them from the truth. It will be a massive threat to human rights and the democracy of Filipinos. Let us remember that there would be no attainment of human rights and democracy if the people are chained to the shackles of manipulation.