A social listening report from Capstone-Intel revealed 37.9 percent of social media users are poking fun at the self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God,” Apollo Quiboloy following a series of issues surfacing online about the latter.
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Background
Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, a Filipino pastor and leader of the Philippines-based Restorationist church known as the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC), previously affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church, established the KJC in 1985. He has asserted that he is “the Appointed Son of God” and claims ownership of the universe.
On November 10, 2021, a federal warrant was issued for Quiboloy’s arrest in California, following sex trafficking charges filed by prosecutors. The allegations state that Quiboloy and others sexually abused female church members aged 12 to 25, offering privileges and promising to spare them from “eternal damnation.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation has labeled Quiboloy’s assets in the United States as “ill-gotten.” On December 10, 2022, the US Department of Treasury and Department of State imposed sanctions on Quiboloy and several others, citing their involvement in corruption and gross human rights abuses.
Recently, Senator Risa Hontiveros reiterated her call for doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy to confront his accusers and address the serious allegations raised against him in an ongoing investigation.
This plea comes just one week ahead of the fourth hearing scheduled by her committee, focusing on the alleged abuses committed by the Davao-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) against its former workers and members.
Senator Hontiveros had previously cautioned that unless Quiboloy appeared at the March 5 hearing of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations, and gender equality, she would consider citing him in contempt and pursuing his arrest.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Hontiveros emphasized that the committee, in its pursuit of legislative insights, “has the power to compel the attendance of witnesses, no matter how well-connected they are.”
Methodology
Capstone-Intel Corp. examined the online presence of the Quiboloy in the country as a topic of discussion for one week, from January 30 to February 28, 2024, by utilizing all publicly accessible posts from social and non-social media platforms in order to gather the sentiments of the public about the embattled preacher.
Facebook Performance
Capstone-Intel found that the Quiboloy garnered a 44,439.7 engagement score for its 1,880 total post count, which yielded over 189,533 total reaction count. The bulk of the engagement score and total post count were all attributed to the issues involving Quiboloy featured by supporters and other influencers, which heightened the social media presence of the preacher across the country.
When broken down, “Facebook like” accounts for 51 percent of the total reactions, with 96,647. Followed by “Facebook haha” with 71,777 reactions (37.9 percent), “Facebook love” with 16,598 (8.8 percent), “Facebook angry” with 2,488 (1.3 percent), “Facebook wow” with 1,337 (0.7 percent), and “Facebook sad” with 686 reactions (0.4).
Looking at the data, the majority of “Facebook like” and “Facebook love” reactions can be attributed to Filipino social media users showing positive insights on the possible arrest of Quiboloy and the chances of him facing the Philippine justice system.
However, the 37.9 percent “Facebook haha” reactions translate to a number of Filipino social media users poking fun at the “Appointed Son of God” alongside supporting calls to arrest Quiboloy.
Online mentions
Capstone-Intel likewise revealed that Quiboloy received 81.4 percent negative mentions, and the remaining 18.6 percent were positive mentions. This means that the article mentions about Quiboloy was mostly angled negatively.
On the other hand, It is also worth noting that Quiboloy received 75,339,195 social media reach, while its non-social media reach yielded over 2,434,218 non-social media reach.
Sources of top posts
In terms of top posts, 48.4 percent of mentions for Quiboloy came from Facebook. This was followed by the news with 21.7 percent, and X (formerly Twitter) with 10 percent topic mentions.
