Website The Daily Sentry posted Aug. 1 a misleading report claiming “new evidence of widespread cheating” in the 2016 elections has been found.
The report bore the headline: “Panibagong ebidensya ng malawakang dayaan noong May 2016 elections, nadiskubre (New evidence of widespread cheating in the May 2016 elections, discovered).”
Quoting a July 31 Facebook post by a supporter of losing vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the report claimed the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) “had come across a strong evidence for electoral sabotage in the May 2016 elections.”
Several news organizations reported early July the PET ordering Camarines Sur officers to explain “irregularities” like wet ballot seals and missing documents; these reports did not mention “evidence” of cheating.
Camarines Sur, Iloilo and Negros Occidental are provinces covered by the PET’s vice presidential vote recount, part of an electoral protest filed by Marcos in June 2016 after narrowly losing to Leni Robredo.
Traffic to The Daily Sentry’s misleading post, which could have reached more than 1.5 million people, was largely generated from social media by the pages The Filipino News, News Wire PH and The News Gear.
The Daily Sentry, which has previously posted false news, was created January 10.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)