When I was in high school, a batch mate accused me of infecting his crush with chickenpox. There are two reasons why this was outrageous: First, months had already passed since I recovered and second, the girl was someone I’d never interacted with.
But these explanations flew right over the heads of many of my schoolmates. My longtime bullies had a field day calling me names. It was near the end of the school year, so I just ignored everything, oblivious to the fact that I would carry the memory of those days (and perhaps also the pain) throughout adulthood.
This is why bullying has always been a sore point for me. Unfortunately, it is something that has shown itself in various forms through the years. I even came of age as a journalist under Rodrigo Duterte who is as much a bully as he is foul-mouthed and violent.
And then there’s China, the global superpower that has done unimaginable things to Filipinos in our own waters. Its vessels have “collided” with our ships, attacked our people with water cannon, and even restricted access to marine resources that would have benefited fishing communities that otherwise have little to nothing.
China is the bully that is starting to not care about what others think, let alone recognize a historic tribunal ruling that puts their baseless claims to shame. Duterte, the former president, even took part in the gaslighting of Filipinos.
But unlike my younger self who was non-confrontational (as a Gemini), Filipinos are standing up against the bullying and harassment of China. They do it in their own ways — expressing their thoughts on social media, making and spreading funny but relevant memes, or even leading civilian missions to flashpoints in the West Philippine Sea.
These rising sentiments trump the increasingly hostile propaganda from China-linked social media pages, according to an in-depth analysis by Rappler and data forensics company The Nerve.
Filipinos caught in proxy war?
One thing I learned from years of being bullied is that bullies thrive on stripping their victims of agency. They belittle your ability to recognize the abuse or defend yourself. And when you finally speak up or hint at taking action, their response is almost always the same, a classic tactic designed to invalidate your feelings and make you question your right to stand up for yourself.
Our analysis of pro-China propaganda on social media uncovered similarly themed narratives, portraying China as the affected party instead of being the instigator of rising tensions. We found social media posts and comments that downplay reported harassment of Filipino vessels by Chinese Coast Guards (CCGs), tagging incidents as “Western war-mongering propaganda,” or “another drama directed by the United States.”
Comments from ordinary Facebook accounts also undermine the Philippines’ ability to defend itself from possible retaliation, even questioning the incidents surrounding harassment against the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) by China.
For China-linked accounts, which show patterns of inauthentic social media behavior, the Philippines is just caught in a proxy war initiated by the US. They further accuse the Western power of “escalating the tension.”
These narratives become more sinister as we dove further into data collected by Rappler and The Nerve: Pro-China propaganda has increasingly targeted actual civilians and not just the Philippine government and its state agents.
I’m talking about the Atin Ito coalition, a civilian-led advocacy group that already went on two supply missions to deliver food and fuel to military or coast guard-manned outposts and Filipino fisherfolks. The coalition aims to “normalize and regularize civilian access” to counter China’s militarization.
Picture this: Ordinary citizens, advocating for different causes, coming together to call China out. With them were fisherfolks and members of the media as they attempted to reach significant areas, like the Ayungin Shoal, using boats that are distinctly smaller than Chinese vessels.
It felt like an adaptation of the biblical story David and Goliath with the vast sea as its backdrop. But for China-linked pages, the Atin Ito coalition is a pawn conspiring with both the US and Philippine governments.
No less than the Chinese Embassy in Manila on May 16 shared on Facebook a link to a Global Times opinion piece alleging the Atin Ito coalition as “far from being genuinely civilian.” It claimed that the civilian movement was funded by “relevant American institutions” too.
There are also several videos — mostly posted by state-controlled media Chinese Daily — that baselessly claim the same thing. We found two English language videos, but the existence of a video Bahasa Indonesia captions hints that propagandists also want to spread the claim outside the usual audience.
Meanwhile, self-proclaimed political commentators — also frequent resource speakers for state-controlled Chinese media — constantly shared posts linking the coalition to a so-called Project Myoushu under Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Both parties deny any involvement with one another.
The pattern of sharing of these baseless claims shows coordinated and inauthentic behavior. Several Facebook accounts seeding the claims into three significant communities — groups that support China or BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), those discussing Philippine politics, and those supposedly just involved in buy-and-sell operations.
I reached out to Akbayan Party president Rafaela David, who is also a co-convenor of civilian-led advocacy Atin Ito, to get her thoughts about these findings.
She said that the China propaganda campaign wants to belittle the courage of ordinary Filipinos because “by seeking to discredit legitimate civilian dissent to their illegal activities, they aim to dampen Filipinos’ resolve to stand up for what is rightfully ours.”
Fighting back
But is China gaining ground against the Filipino spirit?
Before we answer that question, let’s first look at existing data. Survey results show that Filipinos have disapproved of Chinese harassment over the years. A more recent March 2024 survey by OCTA Research, meanwhile, found that 91% of adult Filipinos “distrust” China. It is important to note though that the survey asked about the country and not Chinese people, as Rappler’s foreign affairs reporter Bea Cupin emphasized in her View from Manila piece.
There is no question that these surveys follow rigorous methodologies that produce credible results. But we also wanted to see what Filipinos — at least those on social media — are exactly saying about the whole West Philippine Sea issue and China.
So we conducted a more rigorous digging. We identified key Philippine-based media sites, gathered all of their Facebook posts between June 2022 and July 2024 related to the West Philippine Sea, and individually checked the comment sections to analyze the actual sentences written by Filipinos.
In total, we analyzed the comments sections of at least 150 posts.
While we found a number of social media comments calling out the Philippines for trying to initiate a war it is not ready for, the treasure trove of data shows that Filipinos are definitely hitting back against intense China propaganda.
They are consistently praising the Philippine Coast Guard who are on the frontlines of the tensions in the West Philippine Sea. There are more critical comments of Duterte and his allies for being too friendly or defeatist in dealing with China, including Vice President Sara Duterte. These kinds of criticisms used to be the minority in comments sections during the previous administration.
Many of the social media comments also call on the United States to offer stronger assistance to Philippine authorities, and to tap the gains of the Balikatan exercises. To recall, relations with the US — the country’s oldest ally — was at its lowest under Duterte. He even ordered the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement in 2020 because of the country’s human rights sanctions, only to suspend the move thrice and eventually not proceed with it.
We also went on Tiktok to get a sense of the landscape on the ever-changing app, analyzing at least 568 videos that were posted with hashtags related to the West Philippine Sea. We found that videos expressing support for Atin Ito and condemning Chinese harassment are among the most talked about and most liked, while videos showing what occurred during these missions are among the most played.
Standing up to bullies
The increasingly explicit and tougher stance of Filipinos against China harassment, including the criticism of government officials who refuse to take a stand, are welcomed developments after years of a defeatist environment under Duterte.
But it is concerning that as tensions rise, we might have to brace for more sinister ways China will spread propaganda and disinformation to bolster their baseless claims, including the possibility that they double down on targeting civilians and civil society.
I recall my childhood again, when I was often told by adults to just suck it up and ignore the bullying. Bringing them to the guidance office will complicate things more. My younger self knew what it meant: You don’t want more trouble.
So I can’t help but think, will an escalation in tensions lead to people censoring themselves on social media, similar to what happened under Duterte as he waged his violent war on drugs? I threw this question at various experts as part of my fieldwork for a longer investigative report.
They answered along the same lines: The Filipinos will not be bullied anymore. – Rappler.com
This investigation used Nerve’s suite of forensic solutions including video and network analysis. If you’re interested in working with the Nerve, send an email to [email protected].
Decoded is a Rappler series that explores the challenges and opportunities that come with living in transformative times. It is produced by The Nerve, a data forensics company that enables changemakers to navigate real-world trends and issues through narrative & network investigations. Taking the best of human and machine, we enable partners to unlock powerful insights that shape informed decisions. Composed of a team of data scientists, strategists, award-winning storytellers, and designers, the company is on a mission to deliver data with real-world impact.
