‘Keyboard Army’ Member Admits Earning P500 Daily by Pretending to be DDS and Hack Their Facebook Accounts

A member of the the so-called ‘keyboard army’ admitted that he is being paid P500 a day by pretending to be one of the supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte or DDS (Duterte Diehard Supporters), but later will hack their Facebook accounts. The purpose is to stop or at least reduce the number of Duterte supporters who are active in social media.



According to Noel (not his real name), he was told that the old strategy (criticizing Duterte’s war against illegal drugs) does not work anymore. Therefore, his ‘unnamed employer’ has to think of another way of eliminating DDS on Facebook. According to him, he uses several fake Facebook accounts and he was taught how to hack one.

“Dati po kasi, ang trabaho namin ay banatan lang at siraan si (President) Duterte sa social media. Pero dahil masyadong marami ang DDS, natatalo kami. Ang nangyayari tuloy, nare-report yung mga fake accounts namin at nade-deactivate. Ang hirap pa naman ngayon gumawa ng bago.” Noel tells Philippine News Courier this Tuesday, November 14.

(Before, our job is to criticize Duterte and destroy his reputation. But because the DDS are so many, we always lose. Then, our fake accounts have been reported and eventually deactivated. And these days, it’s very hard to create a new one.)

Must Read: * Rappler Reports US ‘Duterte’s Keyboard Army’ Report That Used Rappler, Inquirer Old Reports as Sources

Apparently, Noel was referring to the recent study by Freedom House, a US-based human rights watchdog. Based on the study, the Duterte government has been employing netizens to be members of a so-called "keyboard army," who are allegedly getting paid to make it appear that many Filipinos are supporting the administration's war on drugs.



"News reports citing individuals involved said the commenters, which they characterized as part of a ‘keyboard army,’ could earn at least PHP500 (US$10) a day operating fake social media accounts supporting President Rodrigo Duterte or attacking his detractors," Freedom House said, adding that the study also includes 64 other countries.

Contributed by Renato Pasayao