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Professional-Duterte channels constantly weaponize disinformation to defend the previous president, delegitimize the ICC, and launch assaults towards drug conflict victims and their households
Practically a 12 months after the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) ordered Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest on March 11, 2025, the highway to the affirmation of his costs at The Hague within the Netherlands has turn into a story of two worlds: details vs. myths.
Whereas authorized consultants argue over proof of crimes towards humanity, a every day flood of disinformation has turned the web right into a battleground for a lot of Filipinos. These claims vary from the far-fetched updates equivalent to his launch, a Davao homecoming, and even his dying, to pretend pictures of large statues inbuilt his honor worldwide.
Although these claims range, they observe the identical pro-Duterte playbook: a deliberate effort to drown out ICC details with manufactured myths. The purpose is to blur the reality and gasoline a groundswell of assist for the previous president.
In Rappler, out of a complete of 540 fact-checks from March 2025 to February 2026, 107 fact-checks centered on the ICC case alone. This represents hundreds of false claims debunked on-line, with a attain of a whole bunch of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of views per publish (READ: Engineered lies: How 2025’s disinformation equipment hijacks our collective actuality).
Duterte’s launch
Of the ICC-related fact-checks, claims relating to Duterte’s launch topped the record with 42 distinctive claims and 15 pretend quote playing cards unfold throughout Fb, YouTube, TikTok, and web sites posing as professional information shops.
The false claims developed from alleging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s involvement within the arrest to claiming Duterte’s return to Davao. To promote these lies, most posts used spliced movies, pretend quote playing cards that includes characters from authorized dramas, and pictures of ICC prosecutors to falsely announce the case’s dismissal.
Coming in at second are pretend courtroom updates, with at the least 29 distinctive claims debunked. These vary from fabricated orders of world leaders demanding the ICC drop the case to pretend testimonies of ICC judges supposedly suggesting Duterte’s innocence.
Rounding out the highest three are assaults on jurisdiction and procedural regulation, with 26 distinctive claims spreading pretend orders from the Philippine Supreme Court docket and the Senate. These false claims had been constantly shared by pro-Duterte channels to falsely recommend that Philippine establishments had formally invalidated the ICC’s authority.
Disinformation networks
The issue extends past the lies to the accounts spreading them. YouTube channels equivalent to Response TV PH with over 570,000 subscribers, and Pinoy Views & Opinion with almost 1 million, have constantly boosted the disinformation ways, attacking the ICC and the Marcos administration whereas shielding the Dutertes.
This ecosystem has additionally pivoted to AI-driven propaganda. Rappler recognized at the least 21 deepfake claims debunked in Might 2025 alone, a surge that coincided with the midterm elections to profit Duterte allies.
The disinformation doesn’t cease with the suspect; it additionally targets the victims. Accounts like Cathy Binag with over 290,00 Fb followers have used deepfakes to defame households of drug conflict victims.
A current fact-check debunked a viral AI-generated picture displaying drug conflict victims’ family members holding luxurious baggage — an try to painting them as “paid” or wealthy. At the least 5 different distinctive claims have been debunked for attacking the victims’ households, a tactic used to pivot from denying Duterte’s crimes to discrediting these searching for justice.
When different narratives fail, the playbook pulls its final card: claims of Duterte’s failing well being or dying. Since his detention in The Hague, 9 distinctive fact-checks have debunked rumors that the he’s close to dying or too frail for trial.
Whereas his supporters depict him as a weak previous man unable to bodily attend the ICC hearings , the Court docket has repeatedly confirmed by medical assessments that he’s match to endure the proceedings.
Because the pre-trial hearings at The Hague proceed to disclose extra particulars of the case, a recent wave of ICC-related disinformation is swarming social media. Rappler stays looking out to debunk these shifting narratives and ship factual reporting. We are going to replace this report as extra false claims floor.
To remain knowledgeable on the most recent developments from The Hague, observe Rappler’s particular protection of the Duterte ICC pre-trial right here. – Rappler.com
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