Dummies

Yesterday, my newsfeed had gone bonkers with friends reporting of having dummy account(s) on Facebook. Unless you are aware of your multiple accounts because you use it to stalk your exes, this is a cause for concern as it only worsens the fear of identity theft or targeted attacks. Most impostor accounts are of UP students and others who had been, in one way or another, critical of the government.

This came the same time as the swift passing of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 by the House and the Senate (President Duterte is expected to sign it just as quickly), which is viewed by most people as a violation of liberty rights. If passed into law, an individual can be apprehended without a warrant and be detained for weeks prior to an appearance before a judge. This poses a threat because even a simple public post of aversion against the government may be viewed as inciting others.

It’s good that I didn’t have any impostor accounts out there, at least one that shows the same name I use on my Facebook account. See, I use my nickname instead of my real name.

I did check under my given name and found a couple of accounts, but I cannot tell for sure if these accounts were impersonating me because I have a lot of namesakes. If I see an account name exactly how it appears on my Facebook account, then that’s a different story `coz that could only be me.

And because I didn’t have any, I joked that maybe I wasn’t that relevant.

Meanwhile, I’ve refrained from posting vitriolic views on my social media accounts (save some on Twitter) not because I’m afraid, scared, or playing it safe, but I just chose not to turn up the online noise. To think, it’s already very noisy and toxic as it is.

Lately, I see a lot of “woke” people calling out those who chose not to react (especially on their social media accounts) when it comes to political and social issues. They were labeled “apathetic”, “ignorant” or “uncaring”. They even say things like, “Sana hindi mangyari sa’yo!” (I hope it doesn’t happen to you) but the way it was said is kind of condescending like they were actually hoping the injustices WILL happen to you.

Frankly, I don’t understand this. No one is in the position to tell others how one should react and more importantly, how one should use their own platform. I have been coming across posts shading out influencers for not speaking up and not using their popularity and platform for “a greater cause”.

If you are vocal against the government and already tired of taking things sitting down so you go online, don’t expect everyone to veer the same way. If they don’t react as fervently, how does that make them ignorant or uncaring? How can you say that they are doing nothing? For all you know, these people care about what’s happening as much as you do but they just don’t go around making noise on social media. Besides, this is not the only way to validate your love for the country.

While I understand that most people are so fed up and angry with what’s happening (who wouldn’t?), I’m just not a big fan of telling someone what and what not to do on their own public network. For the nth time, we can only discern, we can never dictate.

Speaking of, last weekend I couldn’t help but reply to a comment made by someone on the Facebook page of an artist I follow. Juliana, a Canadian-based sculptor, posted a picture of her and her family going to a protest for the Black Lives Matter movement and someone commented that she should stick to art and not on politics.

Now I don’t usually argue with someone I don’t know online, especially when it reeks racist, but this time I’m willing to make an exception because, again, shaming someone on her own page is not cool!

It’s good that he didn’t resort to insulting me as what most trolls would do, but I don’t know if he deleted his comments, deactivated his account, or blocked me because I can no longer see this exchange the last time I checked.

Dummies, dummies everywhere.