Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the presidential candidate of PDP-Laban in the upcoming 2016 national elections made headlines anew after he made a statement that understood by most netizens as an attack or show of disrespect to the Pope. The story became the hottest topic online but a satire news site, NewsPh or the Philippine Trend website caught the attentions of netizens after one of their fake story went viral online.
The satire news site revealed that they interviewed Pope Francis regarding his statement with the recent controversy involving him and Mayor Duterte. According to the satire news site, the Pope was quoted as saying “I was amazed by the fact that a politician who is aiming at the highest position could be this honest. It was a first encounter for me to see a politician being honest about his concerns for his country other than kissing my hands for the sole purpose of getting the support of the majority of the Catholic population.”
Although the news article clearly states that the news was indeed fake thousands of Filipino netizens were astonished by the statement of the Pope. Most of the Duterte supporters just commented in favor of Mayor Duterte without examining that the news article was just a satire.
The article about the statement released by the Pope himself spread like wildfire in various social media sites but most netizens were still victims of what we call “misinformation.”