Palace belies human rights watchdog report on ‘keyboard army’

Malacañang disproved the report of Freedom House, a US-based human rights watchdog, that claimed Philippine government is employing a “keyboard army” to “amplify the impression of widespread support of the government’s brutal crackdown on the drug trade.”

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar said that there is no need for his office to do so because president Rodrigo Duterte already have millions of supporters.

In a text message to reporters, Andanar said “The Presidential Communications Operations Office does not employ a ‘keyboard army.

‘ What President Duterte has are millions of supporters, 16 million of which turned up at polling precincts throughout the land.”

According to Freedom House, the members of a “keyboard army” are tasked to operate fake social media accounts to express support for Duterte or attack his critics during the May 2016 elections.

Meawhile, Andanar said they are interested to know how Freedom House created its report and gathered their data.

DAILY NEWS ROUND UP FOR 11/ 18 /17