Submissions will be accepted until June 19, 2023. It’s time to let your imagination run wild and bring your ideas to life through the power of visual storytelling. Show the world your passion for combatting misinformation and make a lasting impact.

Not only will you have the opportunity to make a difference, but you also stand a chance to win amazing prizes! The winners will be awarded attractive cash prizes, recognizing their talent and dedication. But that’s not all! We have a special award waiting for the video entry that receives the most likes and shares across social media platforms. So, make sure to create compelling content that resonates with the audience.

But the excitement doesn’t end there! The grand celebration awaits at the 1st-ever Philippines Fact-Checking Summit in Manila on June 24, 2023. Join the gathering of industry experts, journalists, and fact-checkers as we honor the contest winners and engage in thought-provoking discussions about media integrity.

Ready to make your mark? Visit our website bit.ly/PakCheckVideoContest for more information and official rules. Don’t miss out on this chance to be part of a movement that empowers truth and accuracy.

Spread the word and invite your friends and fellow creatives to join the Pak! Check Video Making Contest. Together, let’s raise awareness, inspire critical thinking, and shape a more informed digital community.

Given this worsening problem, the Break the Fake Movement designed a new program called the Media Civics Lab Fact-Checking Academy, a media and information literacy program that aims to fight disinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The program started catering to SK leaders nationwide, and the initial groundwork will be supplemented through the addition of another layer of audience to its original design – the influencers.

The Break the Fake Movement is encouraging influencers who support critical thinking, responsible digital citizenship, and online etiquette to join a one-year leadership development and mentoring on fact-checking and multimedia content production to help combat disinformation by fact-checking information.

Program

The Break the Fake Movement, in partnership with Internews, will implement an influencer-led media and information literacy campaign under the project called Strengthening Disinformation Resilience in the Philippines – Six-Track Engagement Against Disinformation Initiative (STEAD-i).

The project’s objective is to strengthen a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including civil society organizations and local media stakeholders, to identify and respond to misinformation and disinformation in the Philippines.

In a span of 10 months, influencers will attend an Influencers Bootcamp, Live Masterclasses on media literacy and fact-checking, Filmmaking and Spoof Ads Competition, Creators Summit, and many other events.

Looking for Influencers Who Support Critical Thinking

As can be gleaned from the 2022 elections in the Philippines, many issues such as high volumes of troll accounts, exaggerated claims, false statements, and out-of-context narratives played a role in influencing public discourse. And this calls for a more calibrated response to protect our democracy.

With the rise of social media, citizens get a lot of content from platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. But unfortunately, many videos and texts that users see on social media are created by influencers and outlets whose objective is to deliberately spread fake news. Such influencers and outlets exploit the gullibility of certain communities to push their own selfish and partisan agenda.

Thus, the Break the Fake Movement is emphasizing the need for a micro-influencer-led campaign that is focused on supporting content creators that help fact-check information through content toolkits, access to experts, networking opportunities, and many others. 

These content creators, influencers, digital educators, and bloggers will be given mentoring opportunities by experts in the academe and the media field, access to key networking events, incentives and toolkits in running their multimedia fact-checks, and many other different forms of support. These micro-influencers should have a certain level of clout or influence within their communities as proven by their online presence and activities. 

So if you’re an influencer who fits the criteria, the Break the Fake Movement is encouraging you to apply for its one-year leadership development and mentoring program on fact-checking and media literacy. Aside from the benefits mentioned above, you will also be able to help protect and strengthen our democracy by posting truthful content.

Interested influencers can send their application through this link. For more information on the Break the Fake Movement, please visit breakthefakemovement.com

Participants were Teachers, Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Officials, and Volunteers from different youth organizations nationwide. The most number of participants were students aged 16-20 years. They were able to take part of the forum through the Zoom Chat and Facebook Livestream comment section.

Selected speakers were able to share their insights live in Zoom. Speakers were from Manila, Cebu, Guimaras, Makati, Marikina, Pasay, Rizal, Baguio, South Cotabato, and Bulacan. Each of them represented one Presidential Candidate that they support while one of them is an “undecided” voter.

The Senior Program Officer of Internews, Mr. Gian Libot opened the forum. In his opening remarks, he reminded the participants to be respectful in engaging with each other. He also emphasized the importance of listening with the intent to understand. Following this, eboto’s spokesperson Christine Pambuan discussed their initiative that will help young Filipino voters know their candidates better in a simple and fun way.

PinasForward and eboto.ph presented a Fact-Checking game before the start of each round. Participants identified whether the news clip displayed is fake or factual and if it is accurate or not. After each game, the organizers gave tips and techniques in spotting fake news. Prizes were given to participants who gave the correct answer.

Issues Discussed During the Forum

During the forum, organizers touched six issues that most youth care about. They gather these topics from the recent Presidential debates done on live television programs. These were:

• Candidates plan for Education on pandemic
• The current administration’s response to COVID-9 pandemic
• The possible return of Marcoses in Malacañang
• Challenges to freedom of expression and press freedom
• Anti-Terror Law
• Same-sex marriage and divorce

Each speaker shared their own perspective regarding the issue for 60 seconds. Meanwhile, participants in the live stream also shared their opinions in the comment section and engaged in a Menti poll.

Organized by MIL

SML Voters’ Forum is co-organized by Media and Information Literacy (MIL) advocates: Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC), Break the Fake Movement, Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), Out of the Box Media Literacy Initiative (OOTB), Yabong Philippines, eboto.ph, and PinasForward, with support from Internews and USAID.

The main intention of this event is not to persuade voters to change their minds about their preferred candidates but to enhance listening skills, emphasize the importance of the process of fact-checking and critical thinking, and teach the youth to recognize commonalities (such as patriotism) even among citizens who may hold opposing viewpoints.

The Forum Gained Positive Feedbacks

The event gained 116 positive feedback from the participants. 63.7% of them believed that the online forum was able to provide a space for civil, respectful discussion among young voters with diverse political perspectives. In addition, 71.3% agreed that the online forum encouraged them to listen to the views of others. Looking at the numbers, Share Mo Lang Voter’s forum was indeed successful in providing a safe and respectful space for discourse among young voters and encouraging them to listen actively. The organizers of the online forum gave Certificate of Participation to Participants who completed the evaluation form.

If you missed the event, you may click this link to watch the replay.

The objectives of the SML Voters’ Forum align with the outcomes of the Philippine Youth Development Plan (PYDP), such as the empowerment of youth to “exercise their right of suffrage responsibly,” as well as the objectives of the Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Framework in Youth Civic Engagement in the Philippines, developed by Filipino MIL advocates and youth organizations in 2021.

While different organizations continue to implement webinars/workshops and forums on fact-checking and addressing misinformation and disinformation, and candidates are being engaged in media/social media interviews as well as debates, there appears to be a gap in terms of creating venues for democratic discussions on the issues young Filipinos are most concerned about and where the candidates stand on these issues.

The SML: Share Mo Lang Voters’ Forum goes beyond the recommended online action in the MIL Framework in Youth Civic Engagement (.e., social media campaign on voter registration and voter education) by implementing a more interactive activity that promotes active listening as well as an understanding of diverse perspectives. The forum will foster meaningful, respectful, and civil discourse among voters, and encourage citizens to step out of echo chambers in order to understand other people’s experiences and points of view.

At the end of the forum, we are expecting participants to recognize the value of active listening and civil discourse; deepen their understanding of fact-checking and critical thinking (including managing one’s biases), and acknowledge commonalities and differences among fellow citizens who may not share the same perspectives.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

The following are the objectives of the online forum:

1. Provide a space for discussion of different perspectives as a way of breaking echo chambers;
2. Promote active listening and engagement in civil discourse;
3. Identify issues young Filipino voters care about;
4. Encourage discussion and analysis of presidential candidates’ stand on issues; and
5. Discuss practical critical thinking and fact-checking techniques in analyzing issues and candidates’ statements.

PROGRAM FLOW 

1. The three-hour program will begin with a brief overview of the forum, its objectives and the eboto.ph website. Followed by the introduction of speakers.
2. Ten to twelve (10-12) speakers will compose the forum–ten (10) of which are supporters of the presidential candidate of their choice while two (2) are “undecided” voters. The speakers are not introduced as representatives of neither their chosen candidates nor their organizational affiliations. In addition, speakers have an option to use an alias; they will not be required to turn on their cameras during the discussion.
3. Five to six issues will be discussed throughout the program. Each round has a time allocation of Fifteen minutes. The facilitators will provide context about each issue at the start of each round. The issues will be selected primarily from those discussed in the televised presidential debates.
4. For each issue, clips from presidential debates and additional research will be presented to show the stand of the presidential candidates. These may be referred to as “resibo no. 1,” “resibo no. 2,” and so on.
5. Per round, speakers will discuss their perspectives on the issue while facilitators gather audience comments from the Facebook live stream and brought into the discussion. There will be a time limit for each speaker. In some parts of the program, speakers will be invited to answer through a show of hands or a poll.
6. A fact-checker and/or expert on each issue will come in before or after each round. Alternatively, a slide may be flashed on the screen for the fact-checking segment while the facilitators discuss the key points.
7. There will be two fact-checking games/icebreakers, with five questions per game/icebreaker between the rounds. Prizes will be given to the winning audience members.

For interested participants, you may click this link to register.

Manila, Philippines – More than five (5) years ago, “fake news” was a term that no one used. Today, it’s no longer just a term, but a phenomenon, recognized as an urgent global problem and a threat to human life by world leaders and institutions.

The rise of social media as the main source of news and information by most has made it easier for malicious figures and groups to spread false content, especially in tech-savvy Southeast Asia.

This led a group of independent youth leaders and professionals in Manila, Philippines to start the “Break the Fake Movement“, an organization that aims to engage the public, especially the youth, through technology-driven media literacy events to combat fake news.

“Fake news is one of the most pressing issues facing the world today. It will take the ingenuity of our youth, combined with the power of technology, to put an end to this trend. We wanted to give them a forum to realize their solutions and mobilize them into action,” said Gabriel Billones Jr., the Lead Organizer of Break the Fake Movement.

The event was held last September 14, 2019 at Solutions Space in Makati City. The grand winner received a total of ₱100,000 worth of prizes. The winners are also given opportunities to pitch their programs to potential investors, visit the country offices of some of the region’s biggest companies, and get mentorship from local entrepreneurs and professionals, and consultancy from marketing and events management company, Ambidextr.
The champion of the Break the Fake Grand Hackathon is Team Troglodyte from the Philippines. Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), De La Salle University (DLSU) DLSU Manila, and University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman graduates, Carlos Nazareno, Dominic Ligot, and Nikko Torcita, created this project that aims to create a system that maps networks of fake news websites spreading digital disinformation.

This is done through a network graph that visualizes and tracks information on fake news and disinformation websites, which are major vectors of digital disinformation and propaganda.

This network graph will be meant for viewing for the general public for general education and awareness, as well as for researchers and other parties actively combating disinformation as a tool for analysis via an interactive network map of the disinformation ecosystem.

During an interview with ABS-CBN, Nazareno said that he decided to compile a list of fake news sites due to his frustration with regards to the volume of fake news sites. By the end of his compilation, he had gathered a total of 60 international fake news websites and 90 Filipino fake news websites. This led him to pitch an idea.

Ligot, on the other hand, expressed that one of the problems is that people are not good at detecting fake news from real ones, they get carried away easily. He added that fake news sites are connected which could be determined by factors including common owners, same hosts, same webmaster, and upon receiving those data, they store and categorize it.

In addition to this, Torcita mentioned that they want it to be a tool that can be used by professionals and amateurs. They want to help journalists, researchers, fact-checkers, etc. They hope that with the database, a pattern could be revealed and preventive measures be made to weaken the activities of fake news websites.

The team plans to work on this project further by developing a Transparent Reputation Index for the database to lessen the people’s questions about the process of determining which news sites are fake, and to be able to determine that, there are several factors to consider such as if the news site has its own editorial team, if they have contact information, if they committed spelling and grammatical errors in their articles, etc.

With that having been said, the team is looking forward to seeing their work take off especially due to the fact that this is a positive contribution to the society. For them, it’s not about the prize, but to inspire the people to unite.

“The network graph proposed by Team Troglodyte is truly innovative. By mapping out the web of fake news sites – which have figurative and literal links to one another – we can also begin to separate these sources from legitimate outlets and publications. Separating the two will undoubtedly lift the quality of public discourse,” said Sofia Galve, a co-founder of Ambidextr, one of the partners for Break The Fake.

The other teams who competed during the Grand Hackathon was Team Free Wifi from Indonesia, who bagged 1st-Runner Up with their reference provider bot which aims to educate people to not directly believe any information that is sent to group chats, and lastly, Team Ambient from Malaysia who developed social media that runs on NEM blockchain platform, which is targeted to audiences that are more concerned with quality and bias-free content.

Technology for Social Good

The event first made its stop in Jakarta, Indonesia in June and held the second outing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July. The Manila leg is the last stop of the event. Participants are encouraged to develop a multitude of possible solutions for fake news, including everything from an online database of fake news sites and an anti-fake news content portal to more niche solutions, like an app that identifies whether an applicant’s credentials are true or a mapping tool that maps traffic sources of a social sentiment in an online platform.

DevCon, an organization dedicated to professionalizing Filipino IT professionals, partnered with Break the Fake for the hackathon.

“Many people associate innovation with just websites and apps. But technology is so much more than that. Just as the previous generation of innovators has worked to keep our data, privacy, and identify safe from cybercriminals, the next will be tasked with ensuring the integrity of our news and information. We’re proud to encourage solutions in this endeavour,” said Devcon founder and president Winston Damarillo, who is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Amihan Global Strategies.

Co-Founder and Chief Organizer of Break the Fake Movement, Gabriel Billones Jr., said that they were “pissed off” with the idea of fake news which brought about the movement where they conceived the software contest in November 2017 to gather talent from various countries to decode a common problem — the spread of fake news, especially now that it’s getting harder to distinguish false information online.

The Hackathon was made possible through the generous grant awarded by the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Seeds for the Future program of the US government, in cooperation with Cultural Vistas. Launched in 2013, YSEALI is the signature program of the United States to strengthen youth leadership in the region.

The “Break the Fake Hackathon” was among the 21 winners of the small grants competition, where they received grants ranging from $4,000 to $15,000. The winners emerged as most deserving from the 400 applications the organization received in Southeast Asia.

For more information and updates, check the organization’s Facebook page at facebook.com/breakthefakeph.