Netizens quote 'Sotto' in Twitter plagiarism protest

Currently controversial senator Vicente Sotto III has said a lot of strange things lately, at least according to the Twitterverse, where the hashtag #SottoPlagiarismProtest became a top ten trending topic Thursday night.
 
The hashtag was started by Brian Paul Giron (@tikbalang), a lecturer at the history department of Ateneo de Manila University, to protest Sotto’s denial of plagiarism after parts of his Turno en Contra speech against the Reproductive Health bill were found to have been directly lifted from the site of American blogger Sarah Pope.
 
“In protest of his defense of plagiarism I will begin misattributing quotes to Senator Sotto and using the hash tag #SottoPlagiarismProtest,” Giron said on Twitter, following it up with a tweet that read “I like biting my toenails – Sen. Vicente Sotto III.”
 
Soon enough, the hashtag became a trending topic on Twitter, with people tweeting quotes from a wide assortment of sources including classic Filipino movies, trendy songs, Miss Universe contestants, prominent politicians, and even the Bible.
 
Some quotes are simply inane, others significant pop culture references, while others still are personal opinions on the plagiarism issue, but all of them have been attributed to the senator.
 
Giron maintains that Sotto’s speech was an abuse of the Internet. In a tweet to a follower, the professor said, “Senator Sotto needs to learn that the internet will fight back when you abuse it; and there is no excuse for plagiarism.”
 
Sotto had already taken full responsibility for his speech.

His top aide insisted that the lifting of passages from Pope's blog is not plagiarism, reasoning that blogs, being on a public domain, are meant for sharing.
 
“You have a blog, it is meant to be shared, it’s in the public domain, so it’s not plagiarism,” said Atty. Hector Villacorta, Sotto’s chief of staff, in defense of his boss.


— ELR, GMA News