By Nikko A. Balbedina III
PressOne.PH
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has disabled the comment sections on its official Facebook page following a relentless wave of coordinated harassment and synchronized noise from pro-Duterte accounts.
GRAPHIC BY NIKKO BALBEDINA
Why it matters: This blocks the coordinated social media activity that has continuously weaponized the ICC’s main announcement channel with false narratives to try to alter the public’s understanding of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s case.
For context: PressOne.PH has documented a surge of synchronized and repetitive comments that swarmed the court’s Facebook page, attempting to discredit its jurisdiction over Duterte’s case.
- In November 2025, the court’s livestream of its rejection of Duterte’s interim release bid amassed more than 100,000 comments, the majority of which were hostile and were posted in short intervals.
- The same pattern has been observed in the page’s other Duterte-related posts, generating about 20 times more noise than other content.
- As a result, eight of the ICC’s top 10 most-engaged posts were Duterte-related, with the coordinated harassment eventually spilling over to hijack subsequent, entirely unrelated content.
What they’re saying: The synchronized comments relied on a recycled playbook of narratives designed to attack the court’s credibility.
- Accounts repeatedly labeled the ICC a “kangaroo,” “crocodile,” or “cash” court to frame the proceedings as corrupt.
- Some comments tied this allegation to local issues, claiming that the ICC was bribed with cash-stuffed suitcases, as seen in the flood control corruption scandal, or with gold bars, referencing the Tallano gold myth.
- The ICC was also accused of hypocrisy, claiming it had stalled cases against leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu while exclusively targeting those the West wanted imprisoned.
The broader front: With the ICC closing its Facebook comment sections, the coordinated campaign to clear Duterte’s name is expected to lean heavier on other platforms like TikTok.
- PressOne.PH previously identified over 100 TikTok accounts acting as an emotional battleground for the former president.
- Instead of legal arguments, these accounts weaponize emotional manipulation by using crying emojis, “manifesting” his interim release, and spreading fake breaking news to portray Duterte as a political victim rather than a suspect in crimes against humanity.
The bottom line: By shutting down its comment section, the ICC may have cut off a major artery for pro-Duterte disinformation—but in the digital age, a coordinated troll network doesn’t just give up; it simply evolves.
