THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Saturday said it sees an increase in cyberattacks and inorganic social media activity fueled by troll farms in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections.
In 2024 alone, at least 32 government agencies were targeted by 5.4 million malicious hacking attempts, according to DICT Undersecretary Jeff Dy.
Of these, 60 were classified as “advanced persistent threats,” indicating state-level technology or support behind the attacks.
Dy said that election-related content could be artificially amplified by bots—automated programs that perform repetitive online tasks—causing them to go viral.
This manipulation effectively “hacks the algorithm” of social media platforms, influencing what users see, he explained.
Dy cited the widespread use of social media posts and memes that exploit trending but unrelated hashtags, often linked to celebrities or political parties, to maximize reach.
However, he acknowledged a key challenge in addressing this issue: “The problem is, it’s not illegal, so there’s nothing we can do. We just monitor.”
Speaking to reporters, Dy emphasized the absence of laws regulating social media manipulation.
“There is no social media regulation, and there’s no law to cover this. Operating a troll farm is not illegal,” he said on the sidelines of a press briefing.
Due to the lack of legal frameworks, the DICT’s role is limited to recommending policies that could be implemented in the future.
