Presentation Schedule
Political Troll Networks’ Fake “Vox Populi” Tactic as an Oppression of Online Public Opinion in the Philippines (110703)
Session Chair: Alice Angel David
Wednesday, 11 November 2026 10:20
Session: Session 1
Room: Room B (4F)
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
Numerous troll studies revealed the deployment of interconnected inauthentic accounts on mainstream online platforms to control the opinion of the masses on domestic politics using various strategies and narratives. This paper specifically examines the fake vox populi tactic, one of the trolls’ manipulative methods, that emerged after conducting content analysis in 1,713 top commenter accounts extracted from 1,000 highly-engaged 2022 Philippine electoral content on Facebook and TikTok apps. This secondary analysis follows a new theoretical approach that focuses on opinion management. Integrating Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann’s Spiral of Silence theory, the perspective asserts that public opinion is divided into majority and minority, where the dominant viewpoints are further amplified and increased visibility, while the other groups with small quantities become less relevant. The tactic aims to misrepresent public opinion online by suppressing algorithmic visibility of different views through high production of content and building the majority illusion by artificial support narratives on comment sections that are well-engaged by other troll accounts. The fear of isolation takes place when users expressing oppositional views are subjected to targeted trolling, resulting in personal discomfort and distressing online experiences that discourage further participation. This paper argues that the dominating tactic is a form of oppression to the freedom of speech, which is highly critical in voting decisions during elections. The tactic mainly executes a two-step process: (1) a troll account/s to produce a propaganda narrative on social media; then, (2) all other thousands of troll accounts positively engage and support the post.
Authors:
Roselle Espina, University of Melbourne, Australia
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