A screenshot of a Twitter post was altered to claim that a supporter of Vice President Leni Robredo fired their helpers and drivers who are supporting rival candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
On March 22, several Facebook (FB) groups and pages published the fake screenshot of a post by a netizen with the username @pisyung who allegedly tweeted: “Pinalayas ko mga katulong namin kasi BBM-Sara sila. Lahat dapat ng mga homeowners sa condos and villages, palayasin ang mga katulong at drivers nila na sumusuprta kay BBM (I fired my helpers because they are for BBM-Sara. All homeowners in condos and villages should also fire their helpers and drivers who support BBM) #PasigLaban #PasigIsPink.”
This fabricated tweet circulated after Robredo’s March 20 rally in Pasig City.
Majority of those who left comments, believing the screenshot to be real, criticized the Twitter user for being an “elitist” and having a “poor attitude.”
The Twitter user @pisyung is an account created in January 2010 and was last active in 2012. The account did not publish the fake tweet in the circulating screenshot.
There is a similar Twitter username that used the same hashtags and emoji in the altered screenshot but it has since locked its account and changed its name. It is important to note that all Twitter handles are unique and different from each other.
In two archived posts taken by a netizen and the Wayback Machine, a March 20 unaltered tweet published by Twitter user @pisyungdg bore the text: “I had tarpaulins and other campaign materials for LENI-KIKO. All are kept in my room for I respect my dad’s decision for the red candidate. Today, bec[ause] of #PasigLaban #PasigIsPink my dad told me ‘NAK, tara kabit tayo LENI-KIKO TARP SA ROOFTOP (My child, let’s hang the Leni-Kiko tarpaulin on the rooftop)’ I’m crying.”
The manipulated screenshot was published by at least 67 FB groups and pages and has garnered more than 26,420 interactions according to social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. Its top traffic generators are FB pages Luminous by Trixie Cruz-Angeles & Ahmed Paglinawan (created on Jan. 29, 2017), Coach Jarret (May 22, 2019) and HOTSPOT (June 25, 2015).
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)