Disinformation had 'limited impact' on polls

EU OBSERVERS:

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Disinformation had a "limited impact" on the 2025 midterm elections thanks to the combined effort of civil society, third-party fact-checkers, and the Commission on Elections in swiftly flagging false and misleading online content, according to a European Union mission that recently observed the May polls.

Social media platforms were quick to comply with most of the Comelec's takedown requests, according to the EU mission. But poll observers say it is increasingly difficult to identify "troll farms" and coordinated inauthentic behavior on social media, a social media analyst with the EU mission told Philstar.com.

The EU Election Observer Mission in the Philippines presented its final report on Thursday, July 3, that evaluates the entire electoral process in the midterm polls against international standards and Philippine law. It deployed over 200 observers from March to June.

While the mission had initially expected disinformation to dominate the campaign trail — especially against the backdrop of the bitter political feud of the Marcos and Duterte families — it found that the Comelec and civil society had slowed or stopped the spread of false narratives.