Type of site Facebook Page / Blog Owner Mocha Productions Commercial No | Available in English, Filipino Created by Mocha Uson | |
 | ||
Website www.facebook.com/Mochablogger (Facebook)
mocha.com.ph (Blog) | ||
The Mocha Uson Blog (stylized as MOCHA USON BLOG) is a Facebook page and blog which serves as a political advocacy page. It primarily caters to supporters of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. It is run by dancer and Duterte-supporter, Mocha Uson.
Contents
History
Mocha Uson Blog previously concentrated on giving sex-related tips or advice by Uson. It also featured 'sessions in the bedroom' with her all-female group, the Mocha Girls. According to her, it later became a platform for Filipinos to express their concerns which are relayed by Mocha to the national government. The page became an online political advocacy tool by Uson to promote the 2016 presidential campaign of Rodrigo Duterte and by October 2016 most of the sex-themed videos hosted by the page were already deleted but copies remains accessible through other non-related YouTube accounts.
The Facebook Page's followers increased to 4 million after Uson became a vocal supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte. According to Uson, the Facebook Page had a "quite a number of followers" before she became a public supporter of Duterte.
When then President-elect Duterte decided to boycott mainstream media organizations, Uson declared support for Duterte and managed to secure an exclusive interview with Duterte in June 2016. Videos of the interview were posted at the Mocha Uson Blog page.
Mocha Uson Blog, aside from being a Facebook page had a blog site which was hosted in https://mocha.com.ph/. But by October 2016, the blog site only hosts external links to accounts managed by Mocha Uson including the Mocha Uson Blog Facebook page. By February 2017, blog site is already defunct.
Content
Prior to the time Uson became a public supporter of Rodrigo Duterte, the page focused on her giving sex advice to followers and bedroom sessions with her group, the Mocha Girls.
The Page hosts content related to President Rodrigo Duterte since Duterte ran for President. In the Mocha Uson Blog, Mocha Uson has shared memes favoring Duterte and critical of the President's critics especially Senators Leila De Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV. Uson also coined the termed "Presstitute" to protest against alleged corruption of mainstream media groups in the Philippines such as ABS-CBN, GMA-7, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Rappler.
Uson also shares links to other Duterte political advocacy pages and blogs through the page.
Reception
By September 2016, the page has registered more than 4 million followers, and in a post around this month, Uson claimed in the page that Mocha Uson Blog has surpassed the engagement metrics of primary media groups in the Philippines. The blog site, mocha.com.ph reportedly registered 20 million hits in June 2016.
In a panel on Technology and Public Debate at Rappler's #HackSociety, Vincent Lazatin, Executive Director of the Transparency & Accountability Network said that Uson's cricial posts through the blog were ad hominem accusations and are backed by no evidence but added that these posts are shared so often that a lot of people take these posts as the truth. The post which he describes as a lie or half truth becomes the truth by the time it reaches the general public”.
The Facebook Page became a subject of a satirical pamphlet entitled "Mochang Tanga Blog" (lit. Idiot Mocha Blog; a pun for 'Mukhang Tanga Blog' which can be also translated as 'Seemingly stupid blog') as part of Tanganglawin an annual lampoon issue of Matanglawin student newspaper of the Ateneo de Manila University. Mocha Uson told followers of her blog to check out the lampoon issue and alleges that the issue is being circulated in Ateneo in secret but was disputed by students of the school.
On October 23, 2016, a petition to suspend the Facebook page was started by Paul Quilét on Change.org. Critics of the petition claim that if the petition gets granted, it would infringe on Uson's freedom of speech but Quilét rejects such claims saying that the petition isn't designed to curtail anyone's freedom of speech and added that the Bill of Rights "are not absolute". The petition has since received over thirty thousand signatures as of October 25. A counter-petition was started by Cheryl Anne who said that the Facebook page has earned a lot of followers, attributing the feat to its "ability to reach out to the common Filipino people giving honest and true information to the public". The counter-petition also added that the mainstream media would "feed the people twisted news and wrong information" if Uson's page is suspended.