De Lima ‘vindicated’ by evidence of fake news in Senate probe

Vindicated.

This was how Sen. Leila de Lima felt as she read the transcript of the second fake news hearing at the Senate, where Rappler CEO Maria Ressa explained how government “enemies” are being systematically trolled.

De Lima said on Friday that Ressa’s statement at the hearing was “proof that I am not just making up the persecution against me.”

“In many ways, I have been vindicated this past year: not just by the various awards and recognitions I have been honored with, acknowledging my plight as a human rights defender under attack, but also by the very acts of my persecutors,” De Lima said in a statement.

“Now, I am again vindicated, this time before my colleagues in the Senate and the whole world, through the statement made by Ms. Maria Ressa during the hearing on fake news last Tuesday,” she added.

“Nung binabasa ko yung transcript ng statement ni Ms. Ressa, parang nagliwanag ang mundo ko! Here is proof that I am not just making up the persecution against me,” she noted.

De Lima said that seeing the pattern of “state-sponsored” trolling—allege corruption, sexualize the target, and call for the arrest of the target—brought on a “Eureka!” moment.

“Yes, that is exactly what happened to me!” she noted.

“Repeat ad nauseam because if you repeat it enough times, lies become truth, and truth becomes lies,” she added.

She said that it was an “immense relief” to see what happened to her be laid down and be threshed out to be a “systematic operation by people who not only train for it, but also have the backing of the State.”

During the hearing on Tuesday, Ressa said Rappler took part in a study looking at “patriotic trolling” — a state-sponsored online hate and harassment campaign “to silence and intimidate.”

She did not provide details of the study, but said it mirrored the findings of a survey of 65 countries released last November by the US-based Freedom House that showed China and Russia were flooding social media with lies and disinformation rather than seeking to control them.

READ: Rappler links Duterte 2016 campaign to certain fake news

De Lima said that it is “terrifying” to think that the country is “at the mercy” of a lobal syndicate of authoritarian governments and rulers that attack democracy and freedom by “killing” the truth.

She called it gaslighting, a form of psychological manipulation aimed at gaining more power by “making the target question his or her reality.” It is a common tactic of abusers, dictators, narcissists and cult leaders, De Lima said.

“You see, this is a horror story. And I am not even the real victim. What was done to me is just one piece of the bigger plan to gaslight the Filipino people,” she added.  /muf