It’s May 12 2022. 

This week, the Philippines elected a dictator's son.

We hoped it wouldn’t happen, and yet here we are.

I’m writing this here on Mirror to get some thoughts out, but also to see if there are possibilities that web3 can provide

But first some background

The problem of disinformation is not new nor unique to the Philippines.

And from what I hear, it played a major role in the 2022 elections.

The reason it’s ‘from what I hear’ is because I’ve never seen a single bit of it. I don’t spend time on Meta’s products. I don’t have a TikTok account. I spend a lot of time on YouTube but I pay for premium (which is the best money I’ve ever spent)

There’s this article by Eugene Wei out of my head. It’s all about the power of TikTok’s algorithm at identifying your tastes and preferences. As I read it, I was both impressed and also aware of how I would need to approach something like TikTok with care

The algorithms are so good at what they do that I haven’t seen a single bit of misinformation myself.

It’s old news that Meta (then-Facebook) was a testing ground for ‘Free Facebook’ back in 2015 in the Philippines. That didn’t end well for us.

Just last month, local telcos also started offering free unlimited TikTok. 

It feels too transparent to me. I’ll save the rant on profiting at the expense of democracy for another time.

My 2 cents right now is that I can escape the cycle of misinformation because I can afford too. I can pay for Youtube Premium. I can buy books. But when you have no money and are living in poverty, you don’t really have a choice but to go with what’s free. 

And here, those aren’t libraries and community colleges. That’s Facebook and TikTok.

I feel inclined to write about the whole thing as I see it. 

I’m not a journalist, or particularly good at writing. I just want to document things in some way. And writing on a blog feels like it falls short- or at least misses an opportunity.

I’m completely new to web3, but I thought this kind of writing can have a place on the blockchain- though I don’t really know why or how yet.

Maybe. I haven’t studied how this would be possible. I’m not worried about my safety (yet). Who knows what will happen in the future?

I suppose. Maybe this is useful against disinformation? My writing can’t be doctored or easily replaced without a clear record of how it was tampered with.

Again, I’m completely new to this space.

I’m not even sure what’s possible.

I don’t know what I don’t know.

But I figure it’s worth giving a shot