EDITORIAL - Beware what you share

There is now a video purportedly of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. using cocaine during a gathering of a group called MAISUG in the US.

However, closer scrutiny of the video shows that is isn’t the president at all. But this hasn’t stopped some netizens from coming up with accusations or spreading the video.

Authorities, including the Department of National Defense, have called on people to be more discerning.

“The obviously fake video being circulated emanating from a MAISUG gathering in Los Angeles is again a maliciously crude attempt to destabilize the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. They will not succeed!” the department said.

Indeed, we have to be aware of what we share. And the reason for this is that social media is now being weaponized by some people against their enemies or just about anyone who ticks them off. And such individuals will think nothing of using impressionable --dare we say even gullible-- people to participate in their ploy.

Fake information doesn’t even have to involve something as sophisticated as a deepfake video or a program or app that mimics a particular person’s voice. Anyone with Photoshop or any visual enhancement software can make any “official notice” or a post that can then be attributed to any individual or even any organization.

Recently, a local celebrity became controversial after scolding a waiter for calling him the right pronoun. Some malicious netizens couldn’t help themselves and came up with fake posts with inflammatory quotes allegedly from that person, further demonizing him and adding even more fuel to the fire. Someone even went further and came up with a fake obituary announcing his death!

But then it got worse; others readily spread these posts without verifying them first. This doesn’t just result in the reputation of some people getting tarnished; it adds to the confusion and some people can no longer tell what is real and what isn’t.

All this confusion and unnecessary damage to reputation can be avoided if we bother to check for the veracity of anything that we are about to share online.