Based on their imagination, US Human Rights Watchdog says Duterte uses Keyboard Warriors ~SHARE
As a reaction, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar asserted that Malacañang does not employ a “keyboard army,” pointing out instead that the President has millions of supporters throughout the country that elected him into office.
Andanar said that “The Presidential Communications Operations Office does not employ a “keyboard army”. What President Duterte has are millions of supporters, 16 million of which turned up at polling precincts throughout the land.”
If you think about it, the Yellows employed their keyboard warriors too, but why didn't Mar Roxas win in the last elections?
Before the elections, the Yellows had a lot of money to throw to support their social media strategy but despite having all the resources at their disposal to maximize the effect of social media, the Yellows still lost the elections.
Why did the Yellows lose?
The answer is simple, they lost because they had a bad product. Mar Roxas was simply hard to sell and Rody Duterte was a product that answered the needs of the people.
The millions of Duterte supporters simply drowned whatever message the Yellows put out there to discredit Mayor Digong.
To put it in its proper perspective, there were no major bloggers during the election period. Mocha, Thinking Pinoy, and Sass Sasot though popular had not peaked to the level they are in now.
Although Mocha was in the lead with over a million likes, Thinking Pinoy, and Sass Sasot just hovered slightly above the 300,000 mark. But it was the millions of anonymous volunteer microbloggers in the who shared post and memes that armed Duterte's social media army.
The real social media heroes were the microbloggers.
The microbloggers were the ordinary Pinoys like you and me who commented, made memes, shared a post, argued with Duterte's critics, and campaigned endlessly on social media tirelessly with the passion to fight for what is right.
With that said, Duterte does not need to pay a “keyboard army”. He has millions of volunteers who continue to defend him to this day.
If the microbloggers were paid by Duterte, the payment he gave us was hope, hope that change would come, hope that our nation will be great. Hope was our payment.
How did Freedom House gather its data?
Martin Andanar was right to wonder “..how Freedom House created its report " and show "how they gathered their data.”
In its report, Freedom House claimed that the Philippines is among 30 countries where governments were found to employ armies of “opinion shapers” to spread government views, drive particular agendas, and counter government critics on social media.
“News reports citing individuals involved said the commenters, which they characterized as part of a ‘keyboard army,’ could earn at least PHP500 (USD 10) a day operating fake social media accounts supporting President Rodrigo Duterte or attacking his detractors,” the report said.
“Other reports put the figure at PHP2,000-3,000 (USD 40-60) a day. Some reports noted the use of automated accounts or bots to spread political content. Similar content was also posted by volunteers,” it added.
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