A global digital marketing firm has offered to help the Philippines in combatting the proliferation of fake news and the large-scale disinformation on social media.
SARTiNE chief executive officer Renesar Deunida said this could be done through effective monitoring, a surgical crackdown on fake accounts, and nationwide public information drive on how to spot facts from fakes.
“Social media has become too powerful and can now “make anyone a president,’” Deunida said in a statement made available to reporters covering the House of Representatives.
He noted that even after the official proclamation of the Philippines’ new president and vice president, “public discussions on the spread of disinformation on social media influencing the outcome of the 2022 elections remain very intense.”
SARTiNE is a leading global digital advertising firm that specializes in data-driven campaigns, brand crisis, and marketing services. It is also a leading authority in data analytics, targeted marketing, political road map, and market research services.
In support of all efforts to end disinformation on social media, Deunida said that SARTiNe has offered its expertise and technological edge to help reduce the distribution of fake news and the undeterred proliferation of fake accounts that are dangerously creating alternatives truths.
Strengthened by the widest reach among millions of users in various online communities, particularly on Facebook, SARTiNE has the means to monitor the dissemination of altered information, can detect bogus social media accounts, and promote ways for voters to differentiate facts from fakes.
Deunida said his company further recognized that despite the notoriously slow internet connection in the Philippines, there is no doubt about the power and influence of social media in the country, with about 81 percent of Filipinos on Facebook, according to the latest data from Statista, a German company specializing in market and consumer data.
“The last three Philippine elections in 2016, 2019, and 2022, have clearly proven how social media became a big part of the election system and, true enough, that social media can make one a Philippine president, just like what happened in 2016 and 2022,” Deunida said.
