When data becomes a weapon
Press freedom is in peril, and trolls are using data without context to threaten it. (Photo from Rappler)
Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize winner and CEO of Rappler, an independent news organization, was at the center of former President Duterte’s war on press freedom. In April 2019, Salvador Panelo, PRRD’s spokesman, declared that Rappler, among a list of other “enemy” organizations, was “trying to destroy this government by spreading false news and planting intrigues.”
Since then, Ressa has been detained multiple times for a variety of charges such as fraud, tax evasion and allegedly receiving money from the US Central Intelligence Agency, and convicted for libel.
Prior to its forced shutdown by orders of the Duterte administration, ABS-CBN was the biggest broadcast network in the Philippines, reaching far-flung areas that other networks’ frequencies were not equipped to reach. One of the main reasons why their franchise was not renewed was their alleged biased news reporting.
ABS-CBN’s news division was vital to spreading crucial information that left a void in the times it was most needed– particularly, during some of the worst waves of COVID-19 in the country.
Ressa and ABS-CBN have two things in common: they were specifically targeted because they closely documented Duterte’s war on drugs, and ever since, their trust ratings have plummeted.
The war on truth
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) released its newest Digital News Report, and it shows that the waters remain rocky for organizations that were hit hard by the Duterte administration.
Prior to the shutdown, ABS-CBN’s average audience share was 45%, compared to GMA’s 32%. Its primetime news block, TV Patrol, was in the top 20 most watched programs of 2018 at 30.5%. But in 2022, RISJ’s report shows that ABS-CBN’s leading news programs have sunk to second place in terms of weekly use, after its main competitor GMA.
It gets worse. While being second place now is bad enough, ABS-CBN now ranks third lowest among 15 of the top news outlets in terms of public trust, with only 52% of respondents saying that they trust the network.
Similarly, Rappler ranks at the bottom, with a 46% trust rating. Rappler also had the biggest distrust rating, with 32% of respondents saying that they do not trust the independent news site’s reporting.
Weaponizing data
While outlets like the Manila Times, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and CNN celebrated being the most trusted, Rappler published an answer to RISJ’s report, heavily criticizing the lack of context in the report that has led to the vilification of independent media.
While Gemma Mendoza, author at Rappler, acknowledged that the RISJ did include some context in the report, she also points out that “[...] The report stops short of drawing a causal relationship between online disinformation and trust. It also fails to take into account the extent of the rise of the massive alternative online information ecosystem, where social media influencers who are unburdened by old-fashioned notions of accuracy, ethics, and financial transparency reign supreme.”
True enough, these influencers took the data from the RISJ report and ran with it the moment they got their hands on it. I would link out to them, but I don’t think they deserve our clicks. There are Youtube videos, blogs, and social media posts poking fun at Rappler and ABS-CBN, further fuelling the frenzy and the ire against media sources that report versions of the truth that those in power do not want the public to see.
As PRRD steps down and a new President steps into power, journalists remain wary of the dangers of their profession. After all, Marcos Jr.’s father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., famously ordered for ABS-CBN’s shutdown under Martial Law in 1972. Many point out that the disinformation that was normalized and even institutionalized during the Duterte administration directly contributed to Marcos Jr.’s victory.
As we continue to trek the murky waters of a massive disinformation ecosystem that has covered up the lies of a strongman President, whitewashed the crimes of a dictator and his family, and put the son of said dictator in power, we must all do our part to not feed into the fake news machine, and remember that data without context becomes a weapon that threatens those of us who are speaking truth to power.
