On the streets on Friday, the spirit of the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution seemed to still burn bright as people from all walks of life poured onto the historic highway to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ ouster. But online, the fact-checking initiative Tsek.ph has found, conspiracy theories and historical denialism about martial law continue to thrive as agents of disinformation attempt to rehabilitate the Marcos family and to disparage the bloodless uprising that ended the dictatorship.
Tsek.ph, a coalition of universities and media and civic groups led by the University of the Philippines, said that from November to February, it had flagged at least 58 martial law-related claims that either propagated myths about the late dictator or denied the human rights violations that occurred during his 21-year rule.
These fact checks on martial law are part of the coalition’s broader efforts to combat election-related misinformation since it was relaunched early this year.
So far, it has flagged disinformation claims—related to both martial law and the May elections—from 1,325 Facebook pages, with at least 200 bearing the names Marcos and Duterte or variations thereof.
Tsek.ph project coordinators Yvonne Chua and Diosa Labiste said this was an indication of how disinformation was being used to “erase or burnish the discreditable record of Marcos.”
To measure the reach and engagement of each claim, the team used Crowdtangle, a...
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