Duterte did not win because of fake news - Roque

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque clarified recently that President Rodrigo Duterte did not publish or push fake news on Facebook in order for him to win the 2016 presidential elections.

The statement by Roque was a direct response to a report released by MSNBC that stated that the campaign team of President Duterte promoted these fake news in 2016.

MSNBS’s The Beat news anchor Ari Melber reported that President Duterte’s campaign team, along with other candidates’ campaign teams were trained by Facebook employees on how to properly utilize the popular social media site.

News anchor Melber added that after the briefing, it was only President Duterte’s team that widened the campaign by pushing fake news and face accounts.

Roque said that just like all candidates during the time of the campaign, Duterte also took advantage of using Facebook as a platform. However, there was no policy imposed by Duterte that said that they should promote fake news, only that he made use of the tools available to him.

“Unfortunately for his detractors, President Duterte appeared to have been the best candidate who utilized Facebook the most,” said Roque.

However, Melber had sited numerous widely-shared fake news that was shared. One was that of President Duterte being endorsed by Pope Francis, which was not true.

Duterte admitted to hiring a social media team to manage the online campaign he had during the elections, as a response to a study from the University of Oxford saying that his administration spent over P10 million for his social media campaign.

***

Source: Inquirer