A Facebook (FB) page published an alleged screenshot of a News5 post calling President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos “stupid.” It is fake.
On Sept. 21, the image emerged with the one-word caption “Korik (correct)” and a thumbs-up emoji, supposedly capturing a post published by the official FB page of News5 on Marcos’ speech at the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). A part of the alleged post’s caption read: “PRES. BONGBONG MARCOS IS UNGAS (stupid)”
The image was edited. The original post was published on Sept. 21 and the caption actually read: “PRES. BONGBONG MARCOS IN UNGA”
The official FB page of News5 clarified on Sept. 22 that the circulating screenshot was altered. The TV network added a graphic comparing the original post and the fabricated screenshot.
Some netizens still believed the manipulated screenshot to be real and criticized the president, stating that “the world knows the whole truth” as evidenced by the numerous “empty seats” while he was speaking during the event.
The fake screenshot appeared the same day Marcos made a speech addressing world leaders at the high-level general debate of the UNGA where he rallied for international collaboration on several issues such as climate change and inequality.
FB page Budol Government (created on April 27, 2010) published the fabricated image which garnered over 3,200 reactions, 460 comments and 180 shares. The image was shared by at least nine other FB groups and pages according to social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
