Online attacks vs young Filipino activists spilling into real world

MANILA — Persistent online attacks against young human rights defenders in the Philippines have created a climate of fear and mistrust that ripples through families and communities, according to a new report by a human rights watchdog.

Online content that tags young activists as enemies of the state — a practice normalized by the anti-insurgency task force created by former President Rodrigo Duterte and kept by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — has also reached a wider audience through Facebook's lax content moderation, according to Amnesty International.

The study by Amnesty International, released on Monday, October 14, draws from interviews with 41 young human rights activists between ages 19 and 28, extensive desk research, and analysis of social media content. Conducted between January and June 2024, the study is based on in-person discussions with activists in Manila, Baguio City, and Laguna, along with online interviews with rights defenders from Negros and Mindanao.

The report covers events from 2018 to 2024, which coincides with the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act (2020) and the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic — both of which the group said escalated state-led attacks on these activists.

Wilnor Papa of Amnesty International Philippines said the study highlights the government's lack of protections for Filipino human rights defenders and how Meta inadvertently amplifies attacks against them through their platform.

The report forms part of Amnesty International's campaign to protect protests worldwide, which it says is increasingly being vilified by different governments, including the Philippines, Papa said at a press conference on Monday.

"Our protests are where we raise the issues we see and share with the government what needs to be done, as sometimes these matters go unnoticed," Papa said, adding: "We see in different parts of the world, not just in the Philippines, that protesting is blatantly criminalized."

Trauma from being red-tagged

Red-tagging crops up as the government's main strategy to discredit young activists and other critics, and contrary to the Marcos administration's claims, remains a widespread practice even post-Duterte, the study found.

It was under Duterte that posts red-tagging activists became a "widespread, cheap and effective" method to harass critics during the COVID-19 lockdown, when most turned to the internet for sources of information. The practice was led by National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, whose red-tagging legitimized threats against young rights defenders.

High-ranking members of the NTF-ELCAC, as well as other public officials, "created a hostile climate for young human rights defenders, using red-tagging as a dog whistle to incite hatred against young advocates engaged in diverse human rights causes and against student journalists," the study said. — Philstar.com (FREEMAN)