BBM threatens cyber libel case against Rappler
By Go Mandino
FORMER Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has threatened to file a cyber libel case against online media outlet, “Rappler,” for claiming in a July 15, 2020 story that he sought the services of Cambridge Analytica to “rebrand” the Marcos family image.
“Instead of changing their ways and adhering to the fundamental tenets of fair journalism and balanced news reporting, Rappler has again resorted to peddling lies and fake news against the entire Marcoses in their vain attempt to dilute the serious credibility issue that has corrupted their worthiness,” Marcos’s lawyer Vic Rodriguez said in a statement.
Marcos, who run in 2016, has pending electoral complaint against the proclaimed vice president, Leny Robredo.
Rodriguez described the article, based on an interview with one of Cambridge Analytica’s “whistleblower,” Brittany Kaiser, as “patently fake, false, and misleading.”
In the interview, Kaiser did not present any evidence or gave a date as to when the young Marcos purportedly approached the company for help in “rebranding” his family’s image and Ressa did not press her for evidence.
“This move by Rappler to besmirch the former senator’s and the Marcos family’s reputation speaks to the kind of insidious reporting espoused by its convicted founder Maria Ressa,” the lawyer added.
Ressa was convicted for cyberlibel by a Manila court last May over an article that besmirched the reputation of a businessman who filed the case over Rappler’s repeated refusal to air his side or correct its story. The case is now under appeal.
“BBM is consulting with his legal team and will be exploring the legal options to fight this injustice. The filing of libel charges is on the table,” Rodriguez said.
It would not be the first time that Rappler credited Cambridge Analytica for influencing Philippine presidential elections.
On April 10, 2018, Rappler, in an article credited to Natashya Gutierrez, claimed that ‘Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) had boasted of winning the 2010 presidential race for its client, Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino. SCL is the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.
In that article, Rappler claimed that although SCL’s boast had been “taken down,” its “reverse image search” of the photo accompanying SCL’s claim showed it was taken during the 2010 presidential elections won by Aquino.
The SCL’s claim was however denied by Aquino’s budget secretary, Florencio ‘Butch’ Abad in the article. “I never heard of the group,” Abad purportedly replied to Gutierrez.
Cambridge Analytica, based in Britain, became notorious in 2018, the same year Rappler released a series of stories linking SCL to Philippine elections. Its chief officer, Alexander Nix, had even visited the Philippines to promote its “business.”
Christopher Wylie, a Cambridge Analytica employee, started talking to newspapers in Britain and America and revealed that millions in personal data of Facebook users have been illegally “harvested” by the company for profiling of voters for sale to candidates anywhere in the world.
Cambridge Analytica was also tagged in swaying public opinion such as Britain’s successful ‘Brexit’ campaign to separate from the European Union in 2016.
Wylie’s disclosures hit the global headlines in March 2018 thru The New York Times and The Observer, one month before Rappler’s stories on SCL and Cambridge Analytica started coming out.
The resulting global scandal, forced FB founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to testify and apologize before the US Congress. Subsequently, it was announced that SCL and Cambridge Analytica had closed shop.
However, foreign journalists who had covered the issue speculated that both SCL and Cambridge Analytica have not really gone out for good but are back influencing global opinion and national elections under different names (with additional reports).
