The media reach and engagement of this year’s presidential candidates have been mistaken by a Facebook page as vote counts showing Leni Robredo leading the race.
Facebook page Draft King Official posted at 6:17 p.m. on May 9 a photo showing Robredo ahead of the candidates with a count of more than 15 million, or 2.2 million ahead of Marcos. It was captioned:
Counting of votes hadn’t started and no tally had been released at the time the post was published. It started after polls closed at 7 p.m.
The original photo was from Bilang Pilipino 2022 and accompanied TV5 journalist Jes delos Santos’ report about the media reach of the presidentiables, including posts from different social media platforms, in the week leading to the May 9 elections.
A similar photo with the title “Media Reach ng Presidentiables” was shared by user Khaz Tin with the caption:
Sabi ko na nga ba eh Si Mama Leni ang mananalo (I knew Mama Leni will win) , Sa Gobyernong Tapat Angat Buhay Lahat
The same set of photos was being passed through private group chats with the same claim.
At least 16 Facebook users posted the photo with more than 3,000 interactions, according to the social media monitoring tool Crowdtangle. (JL)