Filter bubble

Since 2018, my social media news feed has been receiving less comments, reactions, and shares on posts that are pro-Duterte. It’s tempting to say that the activities of trolls and influencers defending the Duterte administration have been in decline, or that their influence online has been gradually declining.

But such may not be the case, at least not yet. What could be happening is that Facebook algorithms have figured me out.

An algorithm is a set of “if-then(-else)” instructions telling a computer program what to do when it encounters a certain data set. For example: “IF this person clicks on, likes or shares posts about Leni Robredo’s activities posted on Facebook, THEN show him more posts directly and indirectly associated with Leni Robredo, ELSE continue to look for other patterns of his social media behavior and relations.”

Social media algorithms also feed us information on the basis of inferred data on our social relations online. For instance, if you often view or press the ‘like’ button on posts from friends in Facebook who are critical of Rodrigo Duterte, the algorithms may start showing in your news feed the posts sympathetic to Antonio Carpio, Duterte’s latest nemesis.

It’s what information technology experts call the “filter bubble”, created by social media algorithms to promote more exposure to like-minded content. It also plays on some people’s tendency to avoid engaging with the diverse members of their network, and focus only on those similarly inclined to their beliefs and biases. Social media is very much unlike a newspaper opinion page where columnists share a variety of opinions, or an in-person public forum where moderators ensure that various conflicting yet civil voices can be heard.

Experts have been warning us about this “filter bubble” since 2015. Yet many still hold the idea that the internet and social media promote the free and open exchange of various viewpoints, perspectives, and ideas, “leading to a well-informed and well-rounded public.”

More and more evidence shows that algorithms used by search engines, social networking platforms, and other large online intermediaries actually decrease information diversity by forming so-called “filter bubbles”. “This may form a serious threat to our democracies,” wrote Bozdag & Van den Hoven in their 2015 study “Breaking the Filter Bubble: Democracy and Design”.

The hottest topic showing in my social media news feed recently is President Duterte’s blunders on the West Philippine Sea issue. The president’s constant gaslighting on the issue looks nonsense. Last week, he called a mere scrap of paper the 2016 Hague tribunal ruling which thoroughly debunked China's claims in almost the entire South China Sea.

On previous occasions the president claimed: “Aquino filed an arbitration case, we won. Bakit hindi ninyo pinuntahan (ang China) at sinita?” Yet the fact is that the Philippines vs. China case at the Hague Tribunal was decided on July 12, 2016, and Duterte assumed the presidency the month before. He did the same on the pandemic issue, claiming to have warned the country from the start about the dangers of COVID-19, when in fact in February 2020 the president said there was "nothing really to be extra scared of that coronavirus thing."

Those messages from the president are picked up by his die-hard supporters and social media influencers. Such optics and sound from the presidential podium are then amplified through social media channels for the consumption of millions of neutral or apolitical audiences. And no, it’s not showing up in your social media “filter bubble”.