A petition to suspend the Facebook page of Mocha Uson, a Filipino celebrity blogger and staunch supporter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, is making the rounds. The Suspend Mocha Uson Blog Facebook Page on Change.org has, as of this writing, attracted almost 26,000 signatories with the following write up set to be “delivered” to Facebook.
Mocha Uson, a Filipino entertainer-turned-Duterte die-hard supporter uses her Facebook page to spread fictitious and false information about pressing issues in the Philippines, from the role the USAID plays in the country to malicious and false news concerning other government officials, eliciting unwarranted hate from the public. The said Facebook page widens the rift between those who support the current administration and those who are critical of it.
Uson’s Facebook page Mocha Uson Blog is a formidable social media presence with 4.3 million subscribers (“Likes”) and, on the back of that following, a reach that rivals the major corporate media outlets in the Philippines.
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The Philippine political landscape of late has been starkly polarised into two camps — supporters of Duterte and “all the rest”. The “Yellow Camp” comprising supporters of former President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III and his endorsed bet who lost in the 2016 presidential elections, Mar Roxas, are said to account for the bulk of the latter.
Uson’s popularity and access to Malacanang have made her the target of vicious attacks from anti-Duterte Netizens. Even mainstream media outlets such as Rappler have attempted to write her off as a quack. In a series of articles denouncing the way Duterte supporters have all but “weaponized” the Internet, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa even blamed the algorithm used by Facebook to prioritise what content gets displayed on users’ timeline for Uson’s rise to prominence writing that “algorithms don’t distinguish fact from fiction.”
So does Mocha Uson’s Facebook page deserve to be suspended?
Facebook’s Community Standards don’t explicitly stipulate regulation applicable to what the Change.org petition alleges about Uson; that she supposedly uses her page to “spread fictitious and false information about pressing issues in the Philippines”.
And, even then, where the accuracy of content in hers or any page is deemed debatable, well, that is supposedly a content producer’s goal — to publish content that engages its audience. That one, in particular, Facebook does encourage in its guidelines…
People use Facebook to share their experiences and to raise awareness about issues that are important to them. This means that you may encounter opinions that are different from yours, which we believe can lead to important conversations about difficult topics.
Perhaps Filipinos just need to learn to deal with important conversations and deal with difficult topics. That is, after all, the whole point of the free market of ideas that is the essence of social media.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
probably trying their luck as the same act brought down sass’ sasot’s page for a few days a couple of weeks ago
Shut down ABS-CBN, GMA,Inquirer, etc, first.
wHERE dO i sIGN????
“real world” yt channel just brought up the petition to ban abs-cbn news for its gross slandering and mud slinging and not anymore reporting anything investigative and based on facts.
You can sign up there as the last time there were already about 200 names who agreed to this. Go now and do it and keep the numbers going to make enough noise to the greater public that we’ve just had enough bull shit from them.
I have an account on Facebook. So far, no YellowTard has petitioned to shut me down…
However, in my blogging at GRP…they send viruses, malwares, and all kinds of hacking programs to my computer.
YellowTard Trolls are always bugging me, as I blog…they send YellowTards trolls to twist or spin my blogs !
It is the Aquino-Cojuangco Political Axis, that does this computer hacking and trolling! They do not want any comments against them !
Shutting down someone’s blog is suppression of freedom of speech. If they think someone is spreading something malicios, they should bring it to court, not through something as relatively useless as change.org.
Oh, I forgot, the “extra-judicial” way is the Filipino way.
Your typical Pinoy will resort to invoking “higher powers” in order to deal with opposing forces. Very few Pinoys are solid enough to fight fairly and with substance.
I have to agree on this particular context you are conveying. That is rampant in all type of industries. Labor unions are establish due to this problem but even inside the union organization the problem exist. It all boils down to the type of people were chosen to hold the “power”. If only every Filipino has desire for self-education and realized the importance of national interest, I believe everyone can manage to find a sense of courage to impose their rights and privilege as citizens of a democratic country.
I think I recognize what you’re talking about, but I was referring more to the tendency of Filipinos to immediately “call in the heavy artillery”, rather than settle disputes with their opponents amicably, and without the need for a mediating entity.
The irony of the process of thought control: the more energy you put into trying to control your ideas and what you think about, the more your ideas end up controlling you.
I think that is totally uncalled for, correct me if i’m wrong but I do not see anyone petitioning to ban any die hard supporters of the other party (you know, the previous administration). what ever happened to democracy and the people’s rights to look at all resources and facts and decide for themselves ?