#OustDuterte is trending

The hashtag #OustDuterte was trended since January this year 2020 and until now every time there is an issue in the administration. It was started when the 2019-nCOV that is now known as COVID-19 occurred. Filipino netizens are calling out for immediate action in concern with the virus such as imposing a travel ban on all tourists that came from China but President Duterte didn’t consider this solution and remain silent during the pandemic.

This issue about the virus is just the beginning of this trending hashtag, it was always trended in social media, particularly Twitter. Based on my observation, whenever I searched #OustDuterte there are always tweets about the incompetence of the Duterte administration, almost every day there are tweets that criticizing the President with this hashtag. For other netizens this hashtag is not just a mere “hashtag” but an expression for their anger, they are calling out people’s attention to make changes and to enlighten them about how the administration is not doing anything when there is a crisis here in the Philippines.

The hashtag #OustDuterte has a positive and negative impact on our society. First one is, it creates cooperation or teamwork between people who supports this hashtag, and they are actually interacting with each other by replying to tweets and post about #OustDuterte. Social media users became active because of this hashtag like it became the key to voice out their opinion, they are free and comfortable to share their own thoughts; experiences, and comments through social media, and hundredths to thousands of netizens are sharing, retweeting, commenting and liking these kinds of tweets or post regarding the hashtag. On the other side, there is a negative impact as well because of other people who are Pro-Duterte or what the society calls DDS: Duterte Die-hard Supporters. DDS people are attacking these people who share and tweets that include this hashtag, the worse incident is that these people who support Duterte are degrading, abusing, cyberbullying, personal attacks and so on the people. Another negative effect of this is the “red-tagging”; the people who support this #OustDuterte are falsely accused and naming them by being a terrorist Because of these, it creates chaos between people who has different perspectives about the administration as well as violates and blocking our right to freedom of expression. This hashtag connects people especially the youths because most people who tweet or post this hashtag are young people who are more involve and more aware of what is the reality or happening to our society and country. It also develops our decision-making capability in the way that we decide whether we agree or disagree with this hashtag. Because of this hashtag #OustDuterte, it just proves that all people are included and participating even you are in favor or against it, we can see how the community and the citizens are taking part.