By Poppy McPherson
BANGKOK (Reuters) – A sophisticated network of fake social media accounts sprang to the impassioned defence of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after he was sent to the International Criminal Court to face charges over his bloody drug war.
Around a third of accounts discussing the arrest on the platform X, mostly praising Duterte and lambasting the court, were fake, according to research shared with Reuters by a tech firm that termed it a “deliberate, organized” campaign.
The accounts acted with a sophistication that made them hard to distinguish from real people, it said.
Such aggressive proliferation of disinformation has now begun shaping discourse around the Southeast Asian nation’s mid-term elections next month, said the company, Israel-based Cyabra, which uses artificial intelligence to identify fake accounts.
Its findings echo warnings from lawmakers and researchers in the Philippines and indicate increasingly sophisticated and “seamless” manipulation in a country dubbed “patient zero” for global disinformation.
In another, upcoming study also seen by Reuters, up to 45% of discussions about the elections – a showdown between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Duterte camp – have been driven by inauthentic accounts, including sock puppets, avatars and bots.
“What we found in the Philippines isn’t just disinformation spike – it’s digital warfare,” said Cyabra’s chief executive, Dan Brahmy.
“These fake networks didn’t just show up – they shaped the conversation,” Brahmy said, adding the election-related accounts could garner around 54 million views.
“And if it’s happening this visibly in the Philippines, it’s naive to think it’s not happening elsewhere too.”
The firm said it did not trace the origins of the fake accounts, though it was likely a single source. Spokespeople for the Marcos government and Duterte did not respond to requests for comment.
‘DIGITAL BLACK OPS’
The level of “coordinated disinformation” seen in the Philippines was far above the typical 7%-10% range of online conversations globally about “highly sensitive or polarizing” issues, according to Cyabra, which has monitored similar campaigns worldwide.
It found that 16% of X accounts involved in discussions about a December election in Romania that were cancelled over accusations of Russian meddling had been fake.
The use of fake accounts and paid influencers for political operations is widespread in the Philippines, with multiple political parties turning to “click armies” credited with helping sweep Duterte into the presidency in 2016.
Analysts saw the hallmarks of a troll army in the days after his arrest last month, when a surge of false claims swept social media, with supporters claiming the ICC had no jurisdiction, calling its move a “kidnapping”, and harassing victims.
Duterte’s 2016-2022 presidency was defined by the tough-on-crime former mayor’s anti-drug operations, which Philippine police have said killed 6,200 suspects.
Cyabra, which says its machine learning can identify fake accounts through behavioural signals, analysed 1,890 profiles that generated more than 5,500 posts and comments on X about Duterte’s arrest.
About a third were flagged as fake, responsible for more than 1,300 posts generating more than 7,000 engagements, including likes, comments and shares, potentially reaching more than 11.8 million views, the company said.
Cyabra said the accounts posted simultaneously, with coordinated activity spikes, identical content and promotion of the same hashtags and narratives.
“The content produced by the fake profiles revealed a clear objective: to bolster public support for Rodrigo Duterte and shape a sympathetic, legacy-driven narrative around his arrest,” the firm said.
BLENDING SEAMLESSLY
The wave of pro-Duterte disinformation is boosting support for the narrative that he was kidnapped by the ICC at the behest of the Marcos government, said Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit, a Manila-based political analyst and founder of the research and advisory firm Stratbase Group.
“No society is ready to see through the disinformation but we need as a nation to fight it,” he said.
Duterte was arrested in Manila at the request of the ICC, accused of murder as a crime against humanity during the drug crackdown, which drew condemnation around the world.
The former president, who has not entered a plea, has a confirmation of charges hearing scheduled for September 23. In a Facebook post after his arrest, Duterte said, “I will be responsible for everything.”
The arrest marks a stunning change of fortunes for the influential Duterte family, which formed a formidable alliance with Marcos to help him win a 2022 election by a huge margin, with Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte as his vice president.
But the two later had a bitter fallout, and analysts see the mid-term elections, where more than 18,200 seats will be contested, as a proxy battle between them.
Cyabra’s study found the proliferation of fake profiles discussing the polls and expressing views across the political spectrum. Of 2,154 profiles examined by the firm between January 1 and March 10, 37% were fake.
Of a sample of 3,033 profiles discussing an administration-backed coalition, the firm determined about 45% were fake.
The profiles were “strategically connected to amplify each other’s content”, creating the “illusion of broad public support or opposition”, with coordinated bursts of engagement, posting at frequencies not humanly possible.
Many fake profiles interacted with real accounts, allowing them to “blend seamlessly into discussions”, engaging with journalists, taking part in debates and reacting in real-time, Cyabra said.
“If you’re just scrolling, there’s no obvious giveaway – they’re built to blend in.”
(Reporting by Poppy McPherson in Bangkok; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
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