[DECODED] How online supporters made a victim of Duterte after ICC arrest

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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines yet again made history when former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on Tuesday, March 11, over a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which charged him with alleged crimes against humanity.

It was a highly charged moment for Filipinos. Users online marked Tuesday as a “day of reckoning” and justice for the estimated 30,000 Filipinos killed in Duterte’s drug war when he was Davao City mayor and president. Politicians critical of Duterte said it was a victory for accountability. Families of those killed in the drug war welcomed his arrest, too, and hoped it was a step towards justice for the victims.

But according to Duterte’s robust social media army, the real victim was the former president, who now has to face the ICC over an anti-drug war campaign that they claim was done out of love for his country.

The Nerve looked into Facebook discussions surrounding former president Duterte since his arrest, and found that his supporter networks are exploiting the platform with paid ads and coordinated behavior to manipulate online discourse.

Spending for the ads mentioning Duterte ranged from below P100 to P8,999. Of the 14 posts about Duterte’s arrest, the highest paid content had a budget range of P1,000 to P1,499, from Facebook page People Power Para Kay Duterte.

Data from Facebook’s ad library showed that the ad had an estimated minimum audience size of 1 million, referring to users who could potentially see the ad based on the targeting criteria set by the page.

The boosted content perpetuated the hateful and false narratives of how Duterte’s critics are merely composed of communists and “dilawan,” a derogatory term associated with the Liberal Party that was popularized during Duterte’s term.

Pro-Duterte users drum up support online and offline

The Nerve analyzed public Facebook posts containing mentions of former president Duterte shared between March 11 and 12. Posts spiked after news of his arrest broke on the morning of March 11, followed by another spike in posts shortly before his plane left the Philippines in the evening.

An overwhelming 43% — almost half of all posts in the dataset — were supportive of Duterte amid the arrest.

These pro-Duterte posts included various statements of support for the former president as well as explicit prayers for or calls to protect him amid recent ICC-related developments. They also portrayed him as a formidable, indestructible leader, and a patriotic hero willing to do whatever it takes for the country.

Supporters also harped on the supposed unfair treatment of the former president during his arrest. These mirrored statements from his inner circle, especially former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo and Duterte’s daughter Veronica “Kitty” Duterte.

Panelo and Kitty claimed Duterte was being illegally detained without a proper warrant of arrest, despite Malacañang confirming they received the ICC warrant beforehand. Duterte himself also cried for due process.

Kitty notably served as the internet’s eyes and ears into Villamor Air Base in Pasay, where Duterte was brought immediately after his arrest. Kitty’s social media posts, routinely picked up by media outfits, claimed her father was not receiving the necessary medical attention, and that he was getting “weaker by the minute” — eliciting sympathy from the pro-Duterte crowd.

The former president’s supporters also took the opportunity to point fingers at President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Duterte family’s erstwhile ally. Previously, Marcos said he “[could not] see” the jurisdiction of the ICC, and he even shut the door on future dealings with the tribunal. This prompted Duterte supporters to call Marcos a traitor to the country and Philippine sovereignty.

These shows of support didn’t just happen online. Duterte supporters in various regions across the country, mostly in Mindanao, gathered offline to call for justice for the former president. Out of the pro-Duterte posts analyzed by The Nerve, 18% were written in Cebuano.

Fan pages, entertainment groups amplify pro-Duterte content

Posts mentioning Duterte were shared in various communities, including news-reading audiences and opposition groups who criticized the war on drugs.

But the Nerve’s analysis found that pro-Duterte content was being shared — with signs of coordination — into entertainment communities and fan pages.

There are several separate community clusters of Eat Bulaga fan pages, as well as a smaller community of vlogger groups, that shared a variety of Duterte-related posts in the two-day period.

These communities sometimes shared straight news updates about the former president’s whereabouts following his arrest. However, entertainment pages and groups would share posts supporting Duterte, including explicit calls to protect and pray for the former president and/or hashtags such as #DutertePaRin and #DuterteLangMalakas.

Pages and groups in these communities also shared false claims that were debunked by journalists and fact-checkers. These included lies that the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) to block Duterte’s departure for the ICC, and a fake quote card with a supposed quote from US President Donald Trump.

Some of these entertainment pages and groups have amassed tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of followers, which means these posts have the potential to reach wide audiences on the platform.

This is not the first time that entertainment and fan pages were used to push pro-Duterte content. In 2018, Rappler found a fan group for a South Korean actor that was later renamed “President Duterte Supporters.” In 2021, Rappler again spotted this tactic of renaming groups, pages, and accounts with large followings to political channels ahead of the 2022 elections.

The power of boosting

Apart from using celebrities and entertainment pages, boosting content — or paying social media platforms to increase the reach of a post beyond its organic audience — is another tactic practiced by Duterte’s supporters. A Rappler investigation in 2021 found that celebrities and influencers were paid to amplify pro-Duterte propaganda and disinformation.

Boosted content about social issues, elections, or politics that mentioned Duterte spiked on Facebook following his arrest on March 11.

As of Thursday, March 13, at least 242 of these boosted posts were active on Facebook. These posts range from news updates and explainers to content about the Dutertes and the Philippine government.

A closer look at the boosted posts showed that at least 14 of the paid posts were explicitly about Duterte’s arrest, with themes related to the war on drugs, ICC, and the Philippine justice system. These posts repeated the misleading and false claims that Duterte’s arrest was illegal and that he made the Philippines a safe country during his term.

Other boosted posts supporting Duterte had lower budgets, with many ranging from P100 to P199. Five of the boosted posts within this range showed the exact same text, which promoted former senator Gringo Honasan’s statement on Duterte’s arrest that frames it as a direct challenge to Philippine sovereignty. These ads all ran from March 11 to 13 and had combined views of around 40,000.

All this online commotion happened within just three days. Although it’s no surprise how quickly the Duterte social army activated to spread lies and hate, these findings once again underscore Duterte’s mastery of the disinformation playbook. — Rappler.com

Decoded is a Rappler series that explores the challenges and opportunities that come with living in transformative times. It is produced by The Nerve, a data forensics company that enables changemakers to navigate real-world trends and issues through narrative & network investigations. Taking the best of human and machine, we enable partners to unlock powerful insights that shape informed decisions. Composed of a team of data scientists, strategists, award-winning storytellers, and designers, the company is on a mission to deliver data with real-world impact.