Does Social Media Influence the Voting Preferences of Filipinos?

As the 2022 Philippine national election looms closer, social media has become a virtual war zone between supporters of different candidates, with influencers left and right, infographics, articles, and other formats being shared widely across all popular social media networks, which begs the question:

Does social media have an influence on the voting preferences of Filipinos, if yes, then how?

Upon realizing that the digital world has become the ad space of choice for candidates, which picked-up steam during the 2016 elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has adapted and drafted new policies seeking to regulate how candidates campaign on the internet, thus setting a level playing field.

However, some candidates have more complex political machinery than others, with a huge chunk of their budget being used for social media. This turns the tides in their favor.

With this, the Metro Cebu News team asked some people about their thoughts on how social media affects their choice of presidential candidates.

For some voters, social media made information or news about candidates more accessible to them.

Annie, 34 years old, said that social media helped her choose Bongbong Marcos Jr. as her president.

“Yes, I think it did help because I saw their interviews on social media. It clarified their platforms for me,” Annie said.

Nicoles, 41, too said that social media also helped him choose Bongbong Marcos Jr. by watching his series of interviews with different personalities.

A 23-year-old named Jeca also said that social media also helped her choose Leni Robredo as her presidential bet this election.

Anton, 31, also said that social media helped him get to know presidential aspirant Ping Lacson.

However, social media is also commonplace for fake news and disinformation, which deter other voters from relying on the medium for information.

Balmungr, 29 years of age, said that he supports Leni Robredo’s candidacy for president and does not base social media on choosing Leni as his president.

“No. I do not base my knowledge of candidates on social media which is notoriously ripe for fake news. Social media can help one choose their candidate only if the individual subject to acquiring information is knowledgeable of reputable sources,” he said.

A 26-year-old April said that she is still undecided. She also said that social media did not really help her choose a candidate because of the rampant disinformation and gatekeeping on social media.

Meanwhile, a 34-year-old named Claire also said that social media did not really affect her in choosing her presidential candidate. Although her first choice was Manny Pacquiao, she favored Leni Robredo because of her experience and background.

In conclusion, social media can be a great tool to get to know the candidate and their platforms. However, social media is also filled with disinformation, black propaganda, and fabricated stories.

Although social media networks have safeguards against this, it is our responsibility as social media consumers to ask questions and verify the information we see on the platform.

Moreover, how social media algorithms work can also lead to tunnel vision caused by an echo chamber where the users experience biased and tailored media experiences. The echo chamber effect puts the user into a space where opposing viewpoints and different opinions are filtered out to fit the user’s preferences making the user reject those opposing viewpoints.

The way to counter this is to widen our perspective. In this way, we can choose the right leaders for our country. (ASC/GFB)