Thais warned of tsunami of fake news as election approaches

“Disinformation is one of the biggest challenges in democracy. It is a right-now problem, and we need to reform the media system to defend democracy,” said political scientist Cleve Arguelles.

Disinformation manipulates public opinion especially during elections, said Arguelles, who lectures at De La Salle University Manila.

He called for a systematic strategy to make society resilient to misinformation.

Fellow academic Yvonne Chua agreed, saying: “We can’t dismantle [misinformation] overnight, but it's important not to give up.”

Chua, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of the Philippines, said it is up to citizens to ask themselves what they can do “to face the enemy of misinformation”.

The conference’s goal was to inform Thai citizens about the impact online manipulation had on the last election in the Philippines, which researchers say was swayed by social media accounts, many of which were fake.

It was organised by CoFact, The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, ChangeFusion, and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.

“Manipulation systematically deploys a strategy, and for a large portion [of the population] it has become acceptable,” said Moritz Kleine-Brockhoff, head of The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Southeast and East Asia.

Kleine-Brockhoff said the multitude of communication channels that exist now, and the tsunami of fake news, make it more difficult to decide what to believe.

CoFact co-founder Supinya Klangnarong urged everyone to investigate and verify information.

Chua noted that extensive studies globally found that 70% of people are aware that they are being exposed to misinformation. The number rises to 90% in the Philippines and the most common fake news there is political, she said.

She and Arguelles agreed that education is vital to prevent people from falling victim to disinformation. Social media and video-based platforms like TikTok make it harder to fact-check information, they added.

Chua co-created the first fact-checking project in the Philippines (Tsek.ph). It has weekly fake news updates and quizzes for the public.

Jason Gonzales, director of the Liberal Party of the Philippines, said Facebook remains the main platform for misinformation. It generated 67 million interactions during last year’s elections in the Philippines, Gonzales said.

“Visual formats are the hardest to track down,” he added.

Stithorn Thananithichot, director of the Office of Innovation for Democracy at King Prajadhipok's Institute, said: “It is our duty to take precautions and alert others [to disinformation].”

Michael Vatikiotis, senior advisor at The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue explained the need for context and education to facilitate dialogue. “More active teaching of the recent past to the public, young voters, and younger politicians is needed,” he said.

Narrative is more important than facts because it conveys context and meaning, several speakers agreed. “If people have a story and narrative, they can make their minds up,” Vatikiotis said.

Janjira Sombatpoonsiri, who leads Thailand’s Monitoring Centre on Organised Violence Events, cast some doubt on the conference’s validity, saying: “It is near impossible to compare Thailand to the Philippines.”

However, she added, information warfare is common during elections and it targets specific groups.

“Peace needs to be the campaign that everyone respects,” Janjira said.