At first look, you might really think that it is Communication Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson’s Facebook page announcing that the United States will now allow Filipinos to visit their country without a visa.
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“Good news mg aka-DDS. Mula ngayong araw hindi na kailangan pa ng VISA para makapunta sa America. Tayo lang po ang bansa sa buong Asia na pinapayagan ng US na pumunta sa kanila ng di na kailangan pang kumuha ng VISA. Salamat kina Sas Sassot at Sir Alan Peter Cayetano,” the page wrote.
As of writing, the post has been shared over 4,000 times.
But once you take a look at the details of the page, like how it was “Mocha Uson’ Blog” with an apostrophe but without the Facebook verification icon, how the page’s description says it is “just for fun,” how it only has over 5,000 followers instead of Uson’s over 5 million followers, and how it states “not yet a journalist,” you will see that it is a fake Mocha Uson Facebook page.
Even the news claimed by the page is also fake. It is not true that that US now allows Filipinos visa-free entry to their country. In fact, it is now tougher to get a visa due to the Trump administration’s new visa criteria.
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According to The Guardian’s report on the stricter visa criteria, only US visa applicants with “bona fide” relationships with someone in the US will have higher chances of getting a visa. Those “relationships would be defined in very specific terms,” especially for those who are originating from Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Iran. Residents from these countries must have a relationship with a parent, child, spouse, adult son or daughter, sibling, or adult son- or daughter-in law in the US to gain entry into the country.
Unfortunately, some netizens took the post as real news.
“Galing nmn tlaga ng tatay digong government. mga ka DDS madali na cguro tayo mkakapunta sa US. Ano ba unang step ng docs ang kailangan para makapnta sa US, tip nmn dyan mga ka DDS. Salamat po,” one commenter said.
Those who were suspicious of the news as a fake one immediately bashed Uson for two reasons – one, for spreading fake news about the visa-free US entry and two, for featuring Trump’s “fake” version.
However, there were also those who knew the current status of the US visa policy.
“This is a bluff. Trump is cutting numbers of immigrants nga tas walang visa? Wag niyong gawing shunga mga pinoy,” one Facebook user said.
Others called out the page for imitating Uson’s Facebook page and pretending to be her. Some labeled the page as a fake Uson page promoting fake news.
“Fake po ang account na ito, hindi ito ang account ni maam mocha, ginaya nila ang blog kaya medyo kapareha kaya delete ko na fake na account na ito,” someone wrote.
“Mocha Uson’ Blog” is indeed a fake Facebook page that is trying to imitate Uson’s popular page and the news about US granting visa-free entry to Filipinos is also fake. In this case, Uson is the one being bashed for having a fake story written about her instead of her being accused as the one spreading misinformation.
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