The Presidential Communications Office yesterday flatly denied that it maintains troll farms while insisting that the government is constantly fighting the spread of fake news.

PCO Secretary Cheloy Garafil told a Senate hearing on the agency's proposed P1.921-billion budget for 2024 that the Marcos administration does not have a troll army or a troll farm.

Garafil made the assertion after Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito raised the suspicion that troll-like activities were being undertaken by the PCO's 1,479 contractual employees.

"For the record, Mr. Chair, we don't have trolls. No troll farm, no troll army," Garafil said.

In response, Ejercito underscored the importance of "disseminating information regarding the accomplishments of the Marcos administration."

Garafil maintained that the PCO provides accurate information as the primary source and disseminator of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s messages.

No revisionism

"Our number one priority is still, of course, communication with the President but, of course, underlying that is what you mentioned earlier, the fight against fake news," she said.

"That's why this year, we launched a media information literacy campaign to address the problem of fake news," she added.

She also emphasized that the PCO would not resort to any kind of historical distortion.

"We will not engage in any form of revisionism as they claim. We want to empower everyone, especially the youth, to see for themselves, on their own, what is really true or not. We will not revise anything," Garafil said.

She also revealed the PCO's partnership with social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Google, and TikTok in the fight against misinformation.

Garafil said the PCO favors establishing a constructive partnership with TikTok rather banning the platform.

In 2021, former Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon demanded that the PCO under the Duterte administration provide documents related to its contractual employees, consistently referring to them as "trolls."

By definition, a "troll" is an individual who engages others on social media for a fee.

Last month, the PCO launched the administration's Media and Information Literacy Project to combat misinformation and disinformation online.

Garafil said the MIL project is the administration's response to the disinformation and misinformation plaguing the country's digital landscape and that it is focusing on capacitating the youth to become more discerning media consumers.