A noticeably photo-shopped image of a “pro-Duterte” march during President Rodrigo Duterte’s July 23 State of the Nation Address (SONA) is making rounds on social media.
Published by website socialmedia.ph on the day of the SONA itself, the blurry photo showed a crowd marching along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City carrying a banner that read “Itakwil Ang Dilawan, Labanan ang Korapsyon (Get rid of the yellows, fight corruption),” and an inset of boxer Sen. Manny Pacquiao. “Yellow” is a colloquial term for members and supporters of the Liberal Party.
The owner of the photo himself, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary-general Renato Reyes, disproved the photo in a tweet the day after and attached a much clearer copy of his photo.
The anti-Duterte protest action called “United People’s SONA,” was actually organized by Reyes’ group. The unedited banner read: “Itakwil Ang Duterte Cha Cha! Labanan Ang Diktadura! (Get rid of Duterte Cha Cha! Fight the dictatorship!).”
Socialmedia.ph’s fake online post could have reached over a million people on Facebook alone, having been shared by both pro- and anti-Duterte pages. Its top traffic generators were the oppositional Silent No More PH, President RodyDuterte Facebook Army and Rodrigo Duterte Supporters (#CBU4DU30) – Cebu Chapter.
Domain history tracking tools could not detect when socialmedia.ph was made. It states in its About page that it is “The First and Ultimate Social Media in the Philippines,” and requires a log-in to view the rest of its content.
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