‘Whoever your candidate is, let’s push back, and push back hard, against these propagandists. Report to the platform and block accounts whenever you can, and encourage others to do the same.’
TROLLS and propagandists have crossed a new line: they have resorted to attacking Vice President Leni Robredo’s daughters. Desperation must be afoot if the dregs of society have decided to violate one of the unspoken rules in politics: leave the children of politicians alone. After all, it is not their fault that their parents have been elected. This is especially the case for the children of the President and Vice President, who are usually kept out of the line of fire, shielded from the brickbats thrown the way of their parents. (It is different, of course, for children who choose to step into the limelight themselves by running or holding public office.)
Aika, Tricia, and Jillian Robredo, all accomplished women in their own right, are now being subjected to the basest form of fake news. Deep fakes of pornographic videos have been posted and are being circulated by these unknown cretins hiding behind their computer screens, and gleefully shared by misogynistic supporters of other candidates. It seems that there is nothing that these propagandists would not do in order to chip away at the momentum of VP Robredo, despite holding second place in the presidential horse race.
It seems the big numbers being pulled in by VP Robredo at her rallies, coupled with the tenacious drive of her volunteers to conduct house-to-house campaigning, is spooking her opponents, so much so that these attacks have been launched with a vitriol that we have not seen before. Yes, politics is ugly and elections can be very dirty, but the repulsiveness of these attacks is something truly despicable. I hope that social media users, regardless of stripe and affiliation, will move to report these posts if only to take a stand against the proliferation of fake news.
Fake news is relentless, my dear millennials and fillennials. You might not feel too emphatic when it happens to the children of politicians, but allow it to percolate and permeate enough, it will soon be on your doorstep, whether you like it or not. It can, and will, victimize unknowing users; given the right motivation (or more appropriately, monetization) these cretins will be incentivized to offer their services to anyone with an axe to grind, after election season is over.
Unfortunately, we can only expect this kind of condemnable behavior to continue for the rest of the campaign period. It makes you wonder: if VP Robredo has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the presidential race (as some “political pundits” would have you believe) then why is she and her daughters the targets of such viciousness? If her massive rallies do not mean anything, why these efforts to bring her down?
Let us not allow these low lives to manipulate the electorate any longer, folks. Whoever your candidate is, let’s push back, and push back hard, against these propagandists. Report to the platform and block accounts whenever you can, and encourage others to do the same.
