Are Duterte supporters gullible? Viral Facebook experiment says they are

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won the presidency with the help of a strong army of online supporters. Now, more than a year after he was elected, this army is still very much dedicated to supporting the president — sometimes blindly. This was recently raised by a viral social media experiment by Facebook user Janjan Gonzales.

Last Thursday, he shared a screenshot of a photo he posted in a Duterte support group with the caption that reads: “In this post, I asked them to Type YES or Like if they are “CREDULOUS” to Duterte.. Lo and behold I got 2,900 LIKES and 715 YES!”

Credulous means “gullible” or “naive,” a definition that did not occur to the allegedly thousands of people that said “yes” or liked Gonzales’ post.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=272523563242148&set=a.118072708687235.1073741829.100014535184511&type=3&theater

But on Saturday, Thea Granada Ceballo, a member of the Duterte support group said that Gonzales post contained a different caption in its initial posting.

Still, another member by the name of Neian Kazumi admitted that when she’s busy, she tends to “like” posts without reading them.

In another Facebook post on Saturday, Gonzales shared screenshots of another experiment he conducted on a different Duterte support group. This time he shared a ranking of countries with a high degree of impunity (i.e. countries where the powerful can ignore the law without consequence) with the caption: “The Philippines is number 1! Father Digong is so good! Type YES or LIKE if you Agree!”

The screenshots Gonzales posted show that 1,000 people liked the post.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=273360386491799&set=pcb.273360709825100&type=3&theater

Coconuts has reached out to Gonzales but he has not responded to questions regarding his reason doing the experiment.

The latest Pew Research shows that 86% of 1,000 Filipinos surveyed early this year still have a favorable view of Duterte.

So what do you think? Do these examples say something important about the president’s support base, or is it unfair to draw negative conclusions from an experiment conducted in this fashion? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.