Facebook execs mull support for Duterte administration

MANILA, Philippines – Incoming president Rodrigo Duterte never knew that social media would significantly help his campaign in the May 9 elections.

The 71-year-old Duterte often wonders what “tag n’yo ako” (tag me), means whenever people would ask him to pose with them for selfies. 

“Unsa man nang tag-tag? (What is tag)?” Duterte would usually quip in the local dialect after every selfie. 

Facebook in a statement last month said around 15.2 million people have engaged in conversations related to the elections on the social media site, generating 124 million interactions on the platform from Nov. 20, 2015 to April 5, 2016.

And for presidential candidates, 64 percent of conversations on Facebook focused on Duterte.

With the imminent proclamation of Duterte, executives of Facebook said they have plans of reaching out to the incoming administration and offer support on how it can use the online platform in governance.

“We absolutely have plans to reach out and tell them we can help, not only to use Facebook on inauguration day but also in terms of governing after that,” Katie Harbath, director of Facebook global politics and government outreach director, told The STAR on Tuesday.

“Eighty-seven percent of the world’s governments have some sort of Facebook presence. Many of the world leaders who have used Facebook a lot in their elections continue to do so as the leaders,” she added.

Elizabeth Hernandez, head of Facebook public policy for Asia Pacific, noted the high level of engagement among social media users in the recent elections.

“Once they’ve tapped that kind of engagement, I don’t think you can stop doing that. That’s a great opportunity to continue that kind of conversation, but during the governance part of it,” she said.

Based on data released by the social media giant on Monday, 22 million people around the world engaged in conversations related to the elections, making it the most engaged elections in the region.

Duterte, who has taken a commanding lead in the unofficial count, remained the most talked about candidate in the social media site since it started monitoring election-related conversations in November.

“Social media’s biggest impact is really not only building up supporters, but persuading people to vote for you and actually getting them out to vote,” Harbath said.

“Now we have to see how they keep using Facebook for governing. That’s where I think we’ll really see if they can use it to actually help take citizens’ input to help determine what their policies are going to be,” she added.

Hernandez said Facebook has been instrumental in making the conversations reach more Filipinos, not just across the country but also those overseas.

“Through social media, the candidates were also able to reach those voters outside the Philippines,” she said.

The Facebook executives revealed they have conducted trainings for all the teams of the candidates to give them a level playing field on using the platform for their respective campaigns.

“There’s a lot of interest from all of the candidates in wanting to use Facebook. We did trainings not only for all the presidential and vice presidential campaigns, but also for many of the candidates for the Senate,” Harbath said.

“We are a neutral platform. We want to make sure that everybody has the same best practices,” she added.