EU poll observers to monitor trolls, foreign meddling

Foreign election interference is becoming a “more common” concern in many countries, the head of the European Union Election Observation Mission said yesterday, underscoring that the EU EOM would closely monitor interference, trolling and disinformation to influence the upcoming Philippine vote.

- PIA LEE-BRAGO

Marta Temido, the chief observer and member of the European Parliament, said that the EU EOM core team has a unit focused on analyzing social media and activities linked to trolls and interference in democratic elections.

The social media analyst unit and media analyst unit have experts who focus on election disinformation.

“We have a press officer, legal analyst and data analyst units. All the concerns you mentioned – foreign interference, hate speech, online manipulation – are being analyzed by our core team, along with insights from our 72 long-term observers and the remaining short-term observers,” Temido said during a press conference.

During a Senate probe on Thursday, the National Security Council (NSC) said there are indications that China is conducting a “statesponsored” campaign to interfere in the May 12 polls.

In the probe, Sen. Francis Tolentino also revealed that the Chinese embassy in Manila was “paying for Filipinos to work in troll farms” to undermine the Philippine government.

“There’s a dedicated social media monitoring unit. And of course, those kinds of issues will be closely monitored in there, if they exist, of course. It’s true that, I mean from over the years, and there will be more and more foreign interference in elections, not only here, but obviously also in the European Parliament elections, in other countries in the world,” Temido said.