Surge in support for ABS-CBN franchise draws overwhelming response on Twitter | ABS-CBN

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Surge in support for ABS-CBN franchise draws overwhelming response on Twitter

Surge in support for ABS-CBN franchise draws overwhelming response on Twitter

ABS-CBN News

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An employee of ABS-CBN fails to control her emotions after watching TV Patrol before it went off air on Tuesday. Fernando G. Sepe Jr., ABS-CBN News

MANILA — For as long as many Filipinos can remember, ABS-CBN has always been there, readily available with a flip of a switch or a click of a button, with its various news programs, teleseryes, and noontime shows to bring color to the public’s drabbest of days.

But this Tuesday night, television screens tuned into the Kapamilya network went dark after it was forced by a cease-and-desist order from authorities to shut down its broadcast operations.

The shutdown prompted a massive outpouring of support online, evidenced by how the hashtag, #NoToABSCBNShutDown, dominated the Twitter trending topics list locally with nearly 1 million tweets late Tuesday, and surpassing eight digits past-midnight Wednesday.

Combined with mentions of ABS-CBN and other related hashtags such as #DefendPressFreedom and #IStandWithABSCBN, the topic of the cease-and-desist order accounted for over 2 million.

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A snapshot of the trending topics list on Twitter around 11 p.m., Tuesday night, dominated by hashtags related to the order to stop the free TV and radio operations of ABS-CBN.

Celebrities and other media personalities, including some from rival networks of ABS-CBN, led the condemnation of what is considered a brazen attack on press freedom.

It was also criticized as untimely, given how it threatens the jobs of about 11,000 people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The topic had been trending since the National Telecommunications Commission announced early Tuesday its order to have the TV and radio operations of ABS-CBN stopped, in the absence of a franchise. The company’s 25-year operating franchise expired on Monday.

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