sharing here katrina’s facebook posts on ignacio “nacho” domingo. we didn’t know him personally, had not heard of him (yet–what a waste), this UP scholar and student leader, apparently a most promising and gifted young man, whose untimely and tragic death so crushed us that we haven’t been able to get it, him, out of our minds, needing to figure out what it was all about, wanting to understand why and how and who and when events escalated so quickly, to a point of no return. this is neither to sensationalize the loss nor to intrude on the family’s privacy, rather, to shed light on, the better to grasp, what went wrong, and to beg that we all guard against it happening ever again. then nacho would not have died in vain.
2 October at 12:43
Those screencaps were released ANONYMOUSLY by a new (now deleted) Twitter account, and dated from two years ago. It was released Sept 25 (11:00AM) by an account called @rhosigrambles. By the afternoon UP ALYANSA (4:31PM) and KALikha: Kasama Ka sa Paglikha ng Arte at Literatura Para sa Bayan (7:49PM) released statements of condemnation.
By early morning of Sept 26 (1:08AM) the UP College of Mass Communication Student Council released a condemnation, promising accountability for any form of “impunity.” By the afternoon, STAND UP (4:20PM) called out the “offenders” for “bastardizing principles.” Students’ Rights and Welfare Philippines (9:35PM) followed suit talking about the “safety of our educational institutions” and stating “UP Sigma Rho Fraternity, particularly its members <name 1>, <name 2>, and <name 3>, who were PROVEN VIA SCREENSHOTS and testimonies to be involved in hazing, as well as sexual and derogatory remarks made on and regarding certain women, to reassess its reasons for existence, present themselves in investigations, hold itself accountable, and thus face the consequences of their actions.” (all caps mine)
By Sept 27 (4:34PM), the University of the Philippines Administration had announced that they were “investigating allegations” and have placed “suspects on preventive suspension” and “will file formal charges where there is evidence to support such a move.” The UP Diliman University Student Council (5:58PM) followed suit with its own statement talking about disciplinary action.
These official statements are all based on screencaps of a conversation from TWO YEARS AGO, released anonymously. A conversation that involved students who were being called “suspects,” and already penalized by the university with preventive suspension, with not enough evidence to file formal charges.
This was NOT just about social media lynch mobs. This was about institutions quickly and swiftly and thoughtlessly making decisions given those mobs. No one’s hands are clean. Certainly NOT the University’s, and NOT its organizations.
October 3
I have 122 screencaps as we speak, mining whatever is still left of tweets that were posted from Wednesday, Sept 25, to Sept 28 when he died, to the post-narratives since. I have gone back to all the statements that were posted. I’m told that before his death, the Mass Comm Student Council FB comments sections were terrible, but I missed that completely.
In fact, I missed this whole thing as it was happening — my Twitter network is obviously removed from it. But there was still enough to go back to, and while it takes time to find the right key words, once you find it, it’s a very depressing blackhole that proves why and how we have come to this point.
I have no time as of yet to write about this at length. But here’s a thought: the noise of groups and the social media mob, demanding quick action and condemnation, there is a downside to that. There is a massive problem with that, especially when we’re talking about private individuals, about REAL PEOPLE. Not everyone is Duterte. Not everyone is just operating with impunity and is a product of the macho-fascist rule. I don’t know why we even have to remind ourselves that.
A question: Where was hunos-dili in this case? When even the institutions did not practice restraint, did not spend some time to put things in perspective, did not even ask questions about whether or not responses are commensurate, or did not wonder about the possibility that these kids don’t even believe what they believed 2 years ago. When institutions are at the mercy of mob rule — who then is in control? Whose responsibility is it to make sure the kids are okay?
#StateU #SocialMediaCrisis #SocialMediaPH
#LynchMobs #MobRule #CallOutCulture
Wilfredo Garrido
2 October at 21:39 ·
DID U.P. MASSCOM STUDENTS JUST HOUND SOMEBODY TO DEATH?
All rules of journalism, especially investigative journalism, boil down to one word: verify.
I do not know who are the professors of the U.P. College of Mass Communications nowadays, but this rule has been tossed out of the window. Beginning one or two years ago.
It doesn’t take much to provoke UP MassCom into one raging mob, baying for blood. An anonymous Twitter account, posting spliced pictures that place someone in a compromising situation, is accorded full credibility as a living eyewitness source. Even though neither the source nor the pictures can ever be validated.
These students do not even bother to take the sides of the persons caught in the compromising situation. Which is the protocol in any news desk. Instead, these aspiring journalists are easy to condemn, to editorialize and to demand punishment.
The first step in a journalist’s career is to report facts dispassionately. To document, to withhold judgment, to watch, listen and take notes. Only after several years of rote reporting – of describing the who, what, where, how and when – can they hope to sit on the editor’s chair. And there to editorialize and to pontificate. That’s the long hard road to success Maria Ressa took. Not so this generation of students in UP MassCom. They want to be opinion makers right away.
I do not want to get into the details of the recent tragedy, out of respect for the privacy of the family concerned, but suffice it to say that the boy these MassCom students mercilessly cyberbullied committed suicide. And yes he was a MassCom student himself and a member of their student council.
The toxic nature of their miseducation makes them dangerous to journalism if and when they ever enter the news industry. Especially in the days of fake news and cyberbullying. So I hope the print, broadcast and online media take notice: do not hire these abusive, defective products of the U.P. College of Mass Communications. And while we are at it, the whole Student Council of that college should resign for hounding somebody to death.
https://www.facebook.com/wilfredo.garrido.14/posts/475626716619413
“The tale of an online mob #NachoDomingo”
https://katrinasantiago.com/the-tale-of-an-online-mob-nachodomingo/