Propaganda War: Weaponizing the Internet (A Reaction Paper)

Internet has changed the course of people’s lives in a lot of ways. It is now the easiest platform to
scatter information—as well as fake information, or to be more specific, fake news. With this in
mind, how can we determine if a certain post online is true or not? How can we know that we are
still accessing the truth?

In the rant article by Maria A. Ressa, a huge pile of rotting garbage was exposed to the public,
and how people are still buying it. One of her points was about the use of social media for
political propaganda. That is accomplished by hiring internet trolls that share fake news in order
to scare people; to unleash fear to the public that will make them turn to the side where the trolls
say is safe. And the people, being very much gullible, caused by lack of information literacy will
then pass on the fake information to thousand more people. During the election, a lot of
Facebook pages circulated online, sharing news about the now President of the Philippines
Rodrigo Duterte. May it be fake or not, the public would still believe whatever they say by using
some believable words and stories. I, myself, have encountered some of these fake news online
before, and I also witnessed how people believed and shared those things immediately, without
even thinking. And the worse part is that even the people who I thought were wise enough not to
believe those, already fell into the hole. These trolls are smart enough to manipulate the internet,
and by extension the people themselves.

More toxic people began to arise, since the people they looked up to are already toxic to the
country in the first place. In the article, many disrespectful comments by common people were
shown, attacking journalists who do their job; who try to unveil the real truth to the public. These
comments were the result after spreading fake news to the public. People only believed what
they think was the truth instead of the real truth. This was really saddening. Watching a large
group of people fall in the hole at the same time is the worst thing that could happen to a country.

Maybe it is true that we are already living in the post-truth era—proofs are everywhere. People
believe what they want to believe; people believe what many believe; people believe what others
tell them to believe. We do not care anymore if the information we have is even close to the
truth. Whatever other people say (using believable stories) immediately becomes the truth for us.
Why are we not looking for the real truth anymore? How did we end up being blind in the dark
hole we chose to fall in?

https://12stem2.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/propaganda-war-weaponizing-the-internet-a-
reaction-paper-2/
REACTION PAPER “Propaganda war: Weaponizing the Internet” By: Maria A. Ressa
Francis John P. Nueca & Geronimo Linjoe Orogo (12-STEM1)