Death Threats, Clone Accounts: Another Day Fighting Trolls in the Philippines
Hundreds, if not thousands, of Philippine journalists and students awoke Sunday to find Facebook accounts made in their names — mostly ghostlike profiles with few or no friends, no pictures, and sometimes misspellings.
Some accounts blocked the people they sought to imitate. Others signaled an intention to impersonate the genuine accounts. By evening — after Facebook announced an investigation — the trolls attacked.
“You son of a b---- terrorist,” one fake account told a student at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, before threatening sexual violence.
The Catalyst, a campus publication, documented menacing messages sent to at least 15 students from their corresponding dummy accounts. The messages included death threats and accusations that students were communists, said Dominic Gutoman, the editor in chief. His staff also found their names used on fake accounts, which he said “cast a chilling effect on our campus journalists.”
Click here to keep reading. Regine Cabato writes for The Washington Post.
