> The article calls out fake profile pictures on facebook as some indication of an artificial message.
It did not; it called out fake profiles. Nowhere in the article did it suggest that a fake profile picture was itself evidence of a fake profile.
> The article also says they have collected a database of facebook accounts that post pro-Duterte messages as if this is somehow an indictment.
It's a database of (mostly real) accounts that post messages that originate with fake accounts; it's a way of measuring the scale of the problem. If millions of real accounts echo these fake messages, it does't mean that there isn't a problem, it means the problem is really big.
> For many in western countries, this kind of feeling is unknown because you've likely never walked the streets expecting to be killed at any moment - you have working police and institutions that keep you safe.
The homicide rate in the Philippines isn't that high; it's comparable to where the US was 20 years ago. That's obviously not ideal, but there are countries where when expecting death when you walk down the street is reasonable. Honduras has a murder rate of 90 per 100k people; El Salvador is 70 per 100k people. The Philippines is 9 per 100k.
> The article tries to associate this as something bad and fake. But it's not, it's real and genuine.
You're talking about a "sense of safety" and "feelings", and then discounting claims of fake stories as if those stories couldn't possibly influence these feelings. Nobody is claiming that Duterte isn't popular; we're discussing why he's popular. Maybe he's popular because of stories spread by fake Facebook accounts that made people feel safer, even though the fundamentals haven't changed?
Plus, if you look at the actual numbers, in Duterte's first year in office, according the the Philippine National Police, murders actually increased by 22.75%.
> everyone on the street supports Duterte because he's given them a sense of safety again
You don't see any issues here?