How 2025’s disinformation equipment hijacks our collective actuality

The disinformation fashions we understood a decade in the past have mutated, evolving into a classy, tech-driven warfare that targets the very material of our collective consciousness — and it’s only simply getting began

MANILA, Philippines – Rappler spent 2025 within the trenches with our communities, debunking lies and decoding the digital noise. However because the yr closes, a chilling, extra insidious sample has emerged, one which underscores the pressing must fortify the safeguards of our society: impartial and dependable journalism, a vigilant neighborhood, and a united entrance of truth defenders.

The disinformation fashions we understood a decade in the past have mutated. What as soon as felt like crude propaganda has advanced into a classy, tech-driven warfare that targets the very material of our consciousness. And it’s only simply getting began.

This yr, Rappler’s fact-check unit printed 545 fact-checks that dismantled hundreds of false claims. These claims didn’t simply sit on the fringes — they exploded throughout feeds, amassing a whole bunch of hundreds of engagements and multi-million views. (READ: How we do our fact-check)

However essentially the most alarming takeaway from 2025 just isn’t the attain of the lies — it’s their evolving energy to influence. We have now moved past the period of crude, troll-driven “pretend information.” Right this moment, we’re battling a much more advanced disinformation equipment: an unlimited, natural community of actual folks swarming to unfold lies they genuinely consider to be true.

This shift marks a harmful turning level. In a high-stakes election yr, disinformation not stays on our screens; it migrates into offline conversations and native city halls, re-engineering our collective actuality and essentially altering the democratic panorama for years to come back.

Duterte, Marcos myths

Out of Rappler’s 2025 fact-checks, 155 targeted on the Duterte household: 109 involved former president Rodrigo Duterte, 38 about Vice President Sara Duterte, and the rest concerned the household as an entire. The depiction of the Dutertes from January to February differed considerably from their portrayals between March and December.

Following Duterte’s arrest on March 11, a surge of false info concerning his well being emerged, portray him as a frail aged man incapable of withstanding trial or confinement by the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC). This was adopted by a relentless wave of disinformation concerning the ICC’s jurisdiction, his purported interim launch, and even false studies of his dying.

Whereas some might view these developments as coincidental given the worldwide significance of the arrest, a report by The Nerve revealed that Duterte’s supporter networks utilized paid ads and coordinated habits to control on-line discourse. These efforts have been designed to systematically remodel Duterte’s picture from a authorized suspect right into a political sufferer.

The report recognized pro-Duterte adverts with prices starting from below ₱100 to as a lot as ₱8,999, focusing on a minimal estimated viewers of 1 million folks. 

Past adverts, fabricated claims that includes deepfakes of Duterte statues gained huge recognition. In accordance with The Nerve, this displays a 2025 political pattern the place emotional attraction and leisure worth are prioritized over factual accuracy. (READ: With rise of AI, Maria Ressa warns of lack of info integrity)

These propaganda fashions and disinformation machineries clarify why false claims favoring the Dutertes remained essentially the most rampant in 2025. In truth, Duterte-related fact-checks accounted for roughly 28.44% of all Rappler’s false claims debunked this yr. This interprets to thousands and thousands of engagements and thousands and thousands of followers influenced by Duterte myths.

Against this, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who skilled a widening rift with the Dutertes, confronted a special disinformation panorama. His narrative was characterised by much less advantageous claims, together with rumors of coups, impeachment plots, and anti-government rallies. Marcos-related fact-checks comprised 11.93% of Rappler’s 2025 debunked claims, additionally securing a high spot among the many most pervasive disinformation subjects within the nation.

Deepfakes as disinformation booster

Other than the Dutertes and the Marcoses, deepfakes have emerged as a main device for broader social deception, accounting for six.61% of Rappler’s fact-checks this yr. These deepfakes usually promote “miracle cures” for continual illnesses, utilizing artificial voices and manipulated video to create a false sense of medical endorsement.

An earlier report by Rappler’s Aries Rufo Fellow for 2023, Jerry Yubal Jr., highlighted that these false cures are notably rampant on social media. 

Platforms like TikTok have turn out to be main hubs for these “miracle” schemes, the place the combination of e-commerce permits customers to buy unvalidated merchandise straight by viral movies’ yellow baskets. These merchandise — starting from pretend most cancers therapies to unregulated dietary supplements — have not been accepted by the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA), posing extreme well being dangers to a inhabitants already weak to medical misinformation.

The hazards encountered on-line in 2025 prolonged into the realm of economic exploitation. Roughly 5.32% of Rappler’s fact-checks this yr revolved round pretend aid support, fraudulent class suspensions, and calamity info. Such posts typically comprise hyperlinks that result in phishing websites designed to steal private and confidential info. (READ: Phishing 101: The right way to spot and keep away from phishing)

Because the variety of residents nonetheless falling prey to those machines of deceit will increase, Meta’s 2025 announcement to finish third-party fact-checking in the US sounds a world alarm. 

Whereas Meta maintains it has no instant plans to take away fact-checkers within the Philippines, the transfer indicators a harmful retreat by huge tech. For a rustic just like the Philippines, the place excessive social media penetration meets a excessive susceptibility to artificial actuality, this alarm threatens to go away the most weak residents additional uncovered to these in search of to hijack our collective actuality.

Regardless of these escalating odds, Rappler’s fact-checking workforce stays dedicated to holding the road, fortified by a stronger partnership with our neighborhood as we enter 2026. As the brand new yr inevitably brings extra challenges, the workforce stands agency and resolute in its mission to defend the reality and defend the integrity of our info ecosystem.

Maintain us conscious of suspicious Fb pages, teams, accounts, web sites, articles, or images in your community by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Allow us to battle disinformation one Truth Verify at a time. – Rappler.com