There’s no denying it — the Philippine social media landscape has become increasingly nasty these days.
“As analysts have been telling us for years, social media is the new battleground for the hearts and minds of the people, and as in any war, the first casualty is the truth,” wrote Eric S. Caruncho in the Philippine Daily Inquirer feature, “Confessions of a troll.”
Rappler editor-in-chief Maria Ressa likewise probes the phenomenon in the article, “Propaganda war: Weaponizing the Internet.”
Ressa pointed out that propaganda techniques — paid trolls, fallacious reasoning, leaps in logic, and poisoning the well — “have helped shift public opinion on key issues.”
We found ourselves particularly curious about paid trolls or professional trolls.
“Not all trolls are part of a paid propaganda campaign, but for now let’s focus on the paid initiatives, which can pay a troll up to PHP100,000 (around US$2,073) per month,” revealed Ressa.
She explained, “Often, dozens of these fake accounts work together along with anonymous pages, strengthening each other’s reach for Facebook’s algorithms. These networks can work with or without bots.”
Ressa then quoted a Rappler source who claimed that a small group of three operators “can earn as much as PHP5 million (around US$103,664) a month.”
Now we understand why people sign up for the job. Money, as they say, changes everything. It’s just a matter of living with yourself after you’ve done your so-called job.
