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Rainier Allan Ronda - The Philippine Star
March 17, 2026 | 12:00am
Henry Rhoel Aguda and Dominic Ligot
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — A digital ethics advocate raised concerns over an apparent coordinated troll attack on an online news report over the weekend, raising red flags on distortion of public opinion through amplified troll use in social media.
Artificial intelligence researcher Dominic Ligot referred to a report in Bilyonaryo.com on March 13 about the imminent replacement of ICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda with former presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda.
Within an hour after being published, Ligot noted suspicious accounts began appearing in the comments section dismissing the article as “fake news,” in different ways and within seconds of each other.
An examination of the accounts revealed several red flags commonly associated with coordinated inauthentic behavior such as identical creation dates and content.
Aguda, when asked by The STAR about the concerns raised by Ligot, said: “I don’t know him. My mandate is to clean the internet of harmful and misleading content.”
He did not directly address Ligot’s concerns.
In his social media post titled “Politics of Perception,” Ligot noted that these inauthentic accounts were sympathetic or supportive of Aguda’s retention and critical of any move to replace him.
This coordinated and inauthentic movement on a comment section, Ligot said, raises serious concerns on the ethical uses of amplifying or distorting conversation on issues on the internet.
“Our research shows that harm happens when narratives are boosted through coordinated networks or influence campaigns. A few posts can suddenly look like a mass movement. That can distort public debate. What we’re seeing here looks like a textbook example,” he said.
“A news article appears. Then coordinated voices flood the conversation to reshape the narrative. Maybe it’s organic support. Maybe it’s not. But if amplification is happening to protect a government official, we have to ask a bigger question – where is the ethics?” Ligot said.
