MANILA, Philippines – Numerous Instagram accounts with signs of coordinated, inauthentic behavior flooded select Rappler posts about former president Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest and departure for The Hague on March 11, with the comments sharing one keyword: DuterteEJK.

The onslaught came on April 7, under posts that were published more than three weeks prior — on March 13, or two days after Duterte’s arrest.

One of the flooded Instagram posts featured a Decoded newsletter by The Nerve, which tackled the revival of familiar Duterte-era disinformation tactics after his arrest.

Another post carried photos from a protest of Duterte’s supporters outside the Scheveningen detention cell in The Hague, the Netherlands, where Duterte is detained for alleged crimes against humanity in relation to his brutal drug war. One more post covered a gathering of families of victims of the drug war days after Duterte’s arrest.

What did the comments say?

In The Nerve’s data scan, two Rappler posts had around 50 comments that carried “DuterteEJK.” The other one had at least 49.

The comments on the Rappler posts featuring the Decoded newsletter and the drug war victims were all posted from 11 am to 1 pm on April 7. Comments on the post about pro-Duterte supporters’ protest were posted from 4 pm to 5 pm on the same day.

The comments shared the same lines of messaging. 

Many expressed having had enough of the news covering Duterte’s ICC arrest, and that people should “move on” from the issue and “focus on something else” instead.

A number of comments, meanwhile, called out the “haters” that kept “attacking” Duterte, lamenting the “negativities” thrown against the former president. They also framed Duterte as a frail, aging man, expressing concerns about his age and health.

Other comments touted the “achievements” of the former president during his term, saying that Filipinos do not appreciate them enough.

Roughly 15% of all the comments, however, appeared to come from the other side, pushing for Duterte to be held “accountable” for the “injustices” he had committed.

Most of these comments were found in the Rappler post featuring drug war victims. It’s worth noting, though, that the 47 accounts that flooded the comment section of that post and criticized Duterte were the same accounts that also supported him in a different post.

This tactic mirrors the broader trend of monetizing information operations, where social media dynamics are leveraged for financial gain regardless of motivation. (READ: How Maggie Wilson's disinformation battle helped expose paid propagandists)

Suspicious accounts

The Nerve also found 94 accounts that flooded the three Rappler posts scanned with “DuterteEJK” comments, with signs of inauthenticity.

All these accounts were created last year. At least 33 of these accounts were made in August 2024, while 27 were made in March the same year.

More than half of the accounts — 50 — had zero following. A total of 35 accounts had one to 10 followers, while only nine had more than 10. Some of these accounts were also found to have the same one post.

The Nerve found 43 of these accounts that left comments on two of the Rappler posts scanned. Four accounts had comments on all three posts.

Since Duterte’s arrest, The Nerve has observed the reappearance of online narratives painting Duterte as the victim and his arrest as unlawful.

Duterte’s supporter networks, The Nerve found, have taken advantage of Facebook paid ads and coordinated behavior to manipulate discourse on the platform.

YouTube videos with Duterte-related content have also spiked, with over 1,600 YouTube channels sharing a total of over 3,000 videos mentioning the former president. Some of these channels could earn up to P20,000 daily. – with reports from Russell Ku/Rappler.com

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This story was originally published on Rappler on April 12, 2025.

Decoded is a Rappler series that explores the challenges and opportunities that come with living in transformative times. It is produced by The Nerve, a data forensics company that enables changemakers to navigate real-world trends and issues through narrative & network investigations. Taking the best of human and machine, we enable partners to unlock powerful insights that shape informed decisions. Composed of a team of data scientists, strategists, award-winning storytellers, and designers, the company is on a mission to deliver data with real-world impact.