In the past three elections, misinformation usually from social media influencers and trolls were observed to have played a key role in shaping the outcome of local and national polls.
And Philippine National Police (PNP) Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil even branded misinformation as more alarming than guns, goons and gold that traditionally influence the result of the elections.
“The worst that we have to really prepare for is misinformation,” said Marbil.
“Fake news will dictate who will win because this is mudslinging. How can we contain them on the media, social media like Facebook because these are intended to destroy candidates,” he added.
Marbil said they are now crafting all the possible measures that they could implement to address misinformation drive and present them to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Before, Marbil said the three main focus of their operations are the flow of hot money, the private armed groups and the loose guns that are traditionally being used to influence the outcome of the elections.
But this time, the election landscape has already evolved, according to Marbil.
“Traditionally, there are three Gs (guns, goons and gold) when it comes to election threats. But now, there are already three Gs and one F, the F stands for fake news,” said Marbil.
He explained that political mudslinging on social media must be attended to as this also influences the outcome of the elections.
“We should also have boundaries on this aspect. We need to come up with a better solution and we will be proposing them with Comelec,” said Marbil.
Marbil admitted that the discussion in addressing fake news is indeed a tricky issue compared to other threats of elections.
For goons and guns for instance, he said these could be effectively addressed with police operations and police visibility.
“There is really a need to discuss this because this is worse than the three Gs. We have to come up with better solutions,” said Marbil.
Aside from misinformation, Marbil said they are also discussing with the Comelec the
most effective ways in conducting a crackdown on vote-buying that would be conducted through popular e-wallets.