Disinformation researcher Jonathan Ong pointed out that the covert influence operation by the United States military, as detailed in a Reuters report, used posts translated into local languages, including Filipino.
Healthcare workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 during the launch of the bivalent Pfizer vaccine at the FilOil EcoOil Centre in San Juan on June 22, 2023.MANILA, Philippines — A disinformation expert urged a Senate committee on Tuesday to investigate the possibility that subcontractors from the Philippines helped craft the messages that were used in the Pentagon 's alleged anti-vaccination campaign against China during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Reuters investigation said that the Pentagon's secret campaign against China took place from 2020 to 2021 and involved the use of 300 fake social media accounts that impersonated Filipinos to spread fears of China-made vaccines. Most of the accounts were created in the summer of 2020 and spread the hashtag #Chinaangvirus .
"It's important for us to track down potential in-country collaborators responsible for the translation and dissemination of these campaigns," Ong said. There was little to no new information that surfaced during the Senate hearing that were not already revealed in the Reuters investigation. The Senate committee meeting did not have representatives from social media platforms that were invited to attend, namely Meta and X.
"We usually get these kinds of issues not just for COVID, but before COVID. We already had these issues in 2016," the DOH official said, referring to the Dengvaxia fiasco in 2016.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
From the Filipino table to the skies: Philippine Airlines celebrates Filipino flavors on its 83rd yearDefining the News
Read more »
How Filipino Pop bands and P-Pop groups are shaping Filipino music culture'Gupit' explores the challenges of moving on and the bravery needed to overcome them
Read more »
The Japanese learning the Filipino languageColumnist's note: Since it is Philippine Independence Day on June 12, I am taking a break from my series of columns on migration linguistics and invited a scholar I respect to write on the Filipino language: Kenichiro Kurusu. He is not Filipino but, undoubtedly, a Filipino at heart, sometimes more Filipino than I am.
Read more »
Zelensky seeks Filipino mental health workers as war takes toll on UkrainiansZelensky told Marcos that his government needs more mental health workers to support Ukrainian soldiers and defenders on the frontlines of the war.
Read more »
TikTok fails 'disinformation test' before EU vote, study showsWildly popular social network TikTok approved adverts containing political disinformation ahead of European polls, a report showed Tuesday, flouting its own guidelines and raising questions about its ability to detect election falsehoods.
Read more »
US seeks to hire over 300 Filipino nursesLatest Philippine news from GMA News and 24 Oras. News, weather updates and livestreaming on Philippine politics, regions, showbiz, lifestyle, science and tech.
Read more »