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Abstract— Facebook is a social networking site where people need to have a valid email and be at least 13 years old to sign
can connect and share with family and friends online. By the year up to Facebook.
2017, there are about 43.9 million Facebook users in the With millions of users in the country, Facebook is
Philippines as recorded by the Statista Statistics Portal. It then becoming a target platform used by online trolls. Trolls are
caught the eye of ill-intentioned people because of the large
number of users. Online trolls started harassing people on
users who humiliate, inflict pain, and ridicule on a targeted
Facebook. Some trolls are part of syndicated used for person. These said trolls post provocative messages or
propaganda. These trolls sway the public into favoring a certain offensive comments just for fun to attack other Facebook
political party and ruining the image of the opposing party. users - a form of harassment. Furthermore, a troll is a user
These syndicate online trolls have specific characteristics. It is who sows discord online by starting arguments or simply
through these characteristics that the researchers were able to upsetting people while using nicknames or fake names. They
create their criteria for identifying a propaganda troll. They post inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages to
tested three suspected trolls on Facebook using this criteria. The provoke other users. [4] These trolls have even established
group then concluded that 66.67% of the time, the researcher’s syndicates in the online community such as Facebook. There
propaganda troll identifying criteria will detect a real troll. This
can be concluded from the fact that 2 out of 3 trolls were deemed
have been reports of paid trolls who help shift public opinion
as actual trolls by the said criteria. on key issues and have also been used as propaganda. These
online troll syndicates start disinformation campaigns that
Index Terms— Facebook, trolls, friends, propaganda, shape public opinion and tear down reputations. [5]
syndicate
Legitimate Users:
1. Active user – the researchers used one of their member’s
actual Facebook profile.
Criteria