Engineered lies: How 2025’s disinformation machinery hijacks our collective reality

MANILA, Philippines – Rappler spent 2025 in the trenches with our communities, debunking lies and decoding the digital noise. But as the year closes, a chilling, more insidious pattern has emerged, one that underscores the urgent need to fortify the safeguards of our society: independent and reliable journalism, a vigilant community, and a united front of fact defenders.

The disinformation models we understood a decade ago have mutated. What once felt like crude propaganda has evolved into a sophisticated, tech-driven warfare that targets the very fabric of our consciousness. And it is only just getting started.

This year, Rappler’s fact-check unit published 545 fact-checks that dismantled thousands of false claims. These claims didn’t just sit on the fringes — they exploded across feeds, amassing hundreds of thousands of engagements and multi-million views. (READ: How we do our fact-check)

But the most alarming takeaway from 2025 is not the reach of the lies — it is their evolving power to persuade. We have moved beyond the era of crude, troll-driven “fake news.” Today, we are battling a far more complex disinformation machinery: a vast, organic network of real people swarming to spread lies they genuinely believe to be true.

This shift marks a dangerous turning point. In a high-stakes election year, disinformation no longer stays on our screens; it migrates into offline conversations and local town halls, re-engineering our collective reality and fundamentally altering the democratic landscape for years to come.

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Duterte, Marcos myths

Out of Rappler’s 2025 fact-checks, 155 focused on the Duterte family: 109 concerned former president Rodrigo Duterte, 38 about Vice President Sara Duterte, and the remainder involved the family as a whole. The depiction of the Dutertes from January to February differed significantly from their portrayals between March and December.

Following Duterte’s arrest on March 11, a surge of false information regarding his health emerged, painting him as a frail elderly man incapable of withstanding trial or confinement by the International Criminal Court (ICC). This was followed by a relentless wave of disinformation regarding the ICC’s jurisdiction, his purported interim release, and even false reports of his death.

While some may view these trends as coincidental given the global significance of the arrest, a report by The Nerve revealed that Duterte’s supporter networks utilized paid advertisements and coordinated behavior to manipulate online discourse. These efforts were designed to systematically transform Duterte’s image from a legal suspect into a political victim.

The report identified pro-Duterte ads with costs ranging from under ₱100 to as much as ₱8,999, targeting a minimum estimated audience of one million people. 

Beyond ads, fabricated claims featuring deepfakes of Duterte statues gained massive popularity. According to The Nerve, this reflects a 2025 political trend where emotional appeal and entertainment value are prioritized over factual accuracy. (READ: With rise of AI, Maria Ressa warns of loss of information integrity)

These propaganda models and disinformation machineries explain why false claims favoring the Dutertes remained the most rampant in 2025. In fact, Duterte-related fact-checks accounted for approximately 28.44% of all Rappler’s false claims debunked this year. This translates to millions of engagements and millions of followers influenced by Duterte myths.

By contrast, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who experienced a widening rift with the Dutertes, faced a different disinformation landscape. His narrative was characterized by less advantageous claims, including rumors of coups, impeachment plots, and anti-government rallies. Marcos-related fact-checks comprised 11.93% of Rappler’s 2025 debunked claims, also securing a top spot among the most pervasive disinformation topics in the country.

Deepfakes as disinformation booster

Aside from the Dutertes and the Marcoses, deepfakes have emerged as a primary tool for broader social deception, accounting for 6.61% of Rappler’s fact-checks this year. These deepfakes typically advertise “miracle cures” for chronic diseases, using synthetic voices and manipulated video to create a false sense of medical endorsement.

An earlier report by Rappler’s Aries Rufo Fellow for 2023, Jerry Yubal Jr., highlighted that these false cures are particularly rampant on social media. 

Platforms like TikTok have become primary hubs for these “miracle” schemes, where the integration of e-commerce allows users to purchase unvalidated products directly through viral videos’ yellow baskets. These products — ranging from fake cancer treatments to unregulated supplements — have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), posing severe health risks to a population already vulnerable to medical misinformation.

The dangers encountered online in 2025 extended into the realm of financial exploitation. Approximately 5.32% of Rappler’s fact-checks this year revolved around fake relief aid, fraudulent class suspensions, and calamity information. Such posts often contain links that lead to phishing sites designed to steal personal and confidential information. (READ: Phishing 101: How to spot and avoid phishing)

As the number of citizens still falling prey to these machines of deceit increases, Meta’s 2025 announcement to end third-party fact-checking in the United States sounds a global alarm. 

While Meta maintains it has no immediate plans to remove fact-checkers in the Philippines, the move signals a dangerous retreat by big tech. For a country like the Philippines, where high social media penetration meets a high susceptibility to synthetic reality, this alarm threatens to leave the most vulnerable citizens further exposed to those seeking to hijack our collective reality.

Despite these escalating odds, Rappler’s fact-checking team remains committed to holding the line, fortified by a stronger partnership with our community as we enter 2026. As the new year inevitably brings more challenges, the team stands firm and resolute in its mission to defend the truth and protect the integrity of our information ecosystem.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at [email protected]. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time. – Rappler.com