Trolls: Politicians Deadly Weapons to Destroy their Enemies

  By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA

Compared to the prelude of the various elections in the past decades, the incoming May 9, 2022 national and local polls will not only be won by charisma and money but through the trolls of a candidate. 

The last one will be based on their expertise to promote the political stocks of a candidate and their impunity to destroy the reputation of his or her opponent.

Troll means to antagonize other (persons) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content (Merriam Webster).

A troll or sock puppet, who spoke under condition of anonymity, in my province told me several months ago that he was one of the countless number of paid hack commissioned by a moneyed politician for ten thousand pesos a month to act as White and Black Trolls.

White and Black Trolls

A White Troll is commissioned to post positive acts of the benefactor and debate intelligently the supporters and the paid fictitious hacks of the rival politicians.

A TROLL in his covert place while promoting his patron and spewing vitriol to the patron's rival through social media's like Facebook - a popular medium in the Philippines. Photo credit:Blog.usejournal.com 

Black Troll can be as nasty to the rival of his benefactor and his supporters who criticized his principal on the social media.

“We sensationalize in the social media news that the television or radio did not give prominence,” said by Don in Tagalog when he was interviewed by Brigada GMA News TV in a feature titled: Fact or Fake: Paano ang Kalakaran sa Isang Troll Farm.

Although this hired gun was not as perceptive as seasoned intelligent columnists and experienced and diligent editors to appreciate the nuances of politics between his patron and his perceive opponent, the cyber mob have Content Editor composed of the politician’s political advisers and allies from the media industry – who are veteran reporters, opinion writers, and editors.

These hired hands have a bigger monthly pay from their patron than those reporters in the mainstream media who are in the payroll, too.

The Content Editor – who writes the various posts for Facebook and newspapers commentary sections – relayed to his subordinates with messages in an ideal day.

“One of them is (name hidden) who sent them the messages and even the answers to rebut the sock puppets of the opponent on the social media,” my source told me in the vernacular.

                                      National Brass Versus Congressman 

When a national official signified to his media friends and supporters his and his family’s intention to run for a congressional seat, the family and media supporters of the incumbent Congressman felt threatened and jumped on him with guns blazing.

The supporters in the print and broadcast media aggressively hype the Congressman and the projects he interceded in the national government more than a year before the May 9, 2022 polls.

Those reporters and the hired trolls found relief on the monthly allowance (although minuscule for those journalists) given to them by the PR guy of the Solon amid the rampage of the Corona Virus Disease-19’s pandemic.

In Manila, a Junior and Senior Trolls received each P30,000 and P70,000, respectively a month according to the same Brigada GMA News TV that it produced in February 27, 2019.

One of the conditions to be a Sicario or Hit Man online is the recipient of the sum would create 100 to 200 fake Facebook accounts where he could spread his mayhem to the enemy and promote the stocks of his patron.

The powerful national official formed too his circle of reporters and trolls to counter the vitriol spewed with regularity by the enemies.

They even accused the family of the Congressman to impose an unconscionable S.O.P – a euphemism for a cut – on every multi-million pesos’ national government project intended to the District.

Photos of substandard pot holed and powdery highways have been posted by the cyber bullies of the national official on Facebook to show to all and sundry how corrupt the family through the collusion of the officials of the Department of Public Works & Highway.

Because of the family’s greed, the contractor resorted to these substandard infrastructures to recoup his expenses, a troll, suspected to be a member of the local media hissed.

Both the cyber mobs of the two camps mud sling each other personally by even mentioning the real names of their foes for the public to know. Pathetic, but that's how money could do to members of the Fourth Estate who want to show their bravado to their benefactors.

To retaliate on the virulent attacks, the trolls of the Solon, who hide on different names, questioned the wealth of the official who is not at par to the multi-million pesos’ vehicles he purchased for himself and his family and his generosity to give away tens of millions of pesos more than a year before the May 2022's polls to elective and appointed officials. An act that threatened big time the family of the incumbent Congressman because they used to be challenged by political sissies for their post in the past decades.

There are two types of trolls: intentional trolls and unintentional trolls.  Though possessing different motives, intentional trolls purposely disrupt internet forums, while unintentional trolls do it without knowing, both end in the same result. Texts and photo credit: Fordhamcyberculture.wordpress.com

New Battle Ground

The new battleground in the election, seen being fought in the 2016 National and Local Polls, is no longer confined in the stage during a stump, radio booth, and the newspaper pages but in the boards of Facebook, newspaper fora, and topic board rooms where the hire guns can be as nasty one can imagine in wrecking the reputation of the politician.

The capacity of these cyber mob to make havoc to the lives of the enemies by even inventing stories could shame the capability of those mainstream media practitioners who are restrained to hit below the belt the opponent because of the libel laws of the land that hang like the Sword of Damocles to them.

Trolls can hardly be sued with written defamation because they cannot be seen.

                           81 Million Facebook Users in the Philippines

There are 80.55 million Facebook users today in the 111 million populated Philippines, as forecasted by statista.com.

With say 40 million of the almost 60 million registered voters, the other moneyed opponent who resorted to the traditional campaign strategies in disseminating pamphlets, leaflets, cards, decals, stickers and other printed materials; advertisement on radio, television, and social media; and, vote buying would be less competitive to a candidate who have all the capacity to bankroll those traditional campaign techniques while exploiting his trolls that act as his online media assassin.

What makes the Filipino election unique? Pinoys susmariosep spend most of their time online in the world — more than 10 hours on the Internet a day — according to social media analytic firm’s Hootsuite.

How to be a Troll

With a subscriber identification module (SIM) card either from Smart or Globe Service Provider one can buy and makes a fictitious account in the Mark Zuckerberg’s founded social media, You Tube, Instagram, Digg, My Space, Twitter, and others and start slandering his perceived enemies.

To avoid being caught with their Internet Protocol (IP) address and be charged with the eight years’ jail time prision mayor’s Cyber Libel Law, trolls have been sending their virulent messages through their cellular phone loads held in places outside their residences.

These hired guns can become a Paul Joseph Goebbels (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) - Nazi Germany’s Nazi Propagandist Chief – who infamously said: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. 

Listen to a seasoned sock puppet who saw how the demolition war ensued when President Rodrigo Duterte and his presidential rivals’ Senator Grace Poe, former Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas and others ran for office in 2016.

“If you hear a lie once, you don’t believe it,” said a representative of the trolling-services firm, which is linked to the Duterte Administration. “But if you hear it from 10,000 people, you start questioning what you know,” cited by Washington Post on its July 26, 2019 issue’s Why Crafty Internet Trolls in the Philippines May Be Coming to a Website Near You.

Content Editors are smarter now, they avoided texts on the social media's board instead used malicious photos of people and words to hit their opponents while avoiding algorithm to catch them and their faked searing posts pulled down by the site’s administrator.

Filipinos spend the most time online in the world — more than 10 hours on the Internet a day — according to social media analytics firm Hootsuite. The country is also one of Facebook’s biggest markets. In some cities, there are more users on the platform than the population. 

So what you say, folks? To rephrase the poser of the renowned former Fox Cable-TV Anchor Bill O’Reilly on his top rating program’s The O’Reilly Factor.

With the Pinoys propensity to plow their eyes on the cyber space, can this be their vulnerabilities that a Political Operator can make his patron exploit with truths and lies to win the 2022 Election?

 

 

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MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.