Non-political spaces can also spread disinformation – study

A NON-POLITICAL Facebook page allows me breathing space from all the online negative vibes. Before I wrote about technology and politics, I shared recipes on my Facebook page which now has close to a million followers. As a non-political page, I avoid posting about current events because it could be misconstrued as political hype. Recently, I broke my rule by sharing the lugaw recipe of Vice President Maria Leonor "Leni" Gerona Robredo. I believed my audience would look beyond the person behind the video. After all, people love exchanging cooking tips. But after a few minutes, many spiteful comments appeared from non-followers and supporters of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. It looked like coordinated inauthentic behavior was behind the attacks on the keyword "Leni Robredo." You wonder about Facebook's commitment to authenticity, that they "don't allow people to misrepresent themselves on Facebook, use fake accounts, artificially boost the popularity of [the] content, or engage in behaviors designed to enable other violations under our community standards."

At a #FactsFirstPH briefing, a study on "Cloaked Politics: The political involvement of non-political Facebook pages in the 2022 Presidential Elections," was presented. Conducted by associate professor Jon Benedik A. Bunquin, Julienne M. Urrea and Myrnelle A. Cinco of the University of the Philippines Diliman Communication Research Department, its findings as published by Rappler, showed that non-political pages are not only posting election-related updates and political news. Results also showed amplifying content from partisan sources and cascading posts about political candidates. Some posts were engaged in disinformation and the spread of disguised propaganda.