THE Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP Laban) faction of President Duterte has denounced Facebook (Meta) Philippines for flagging and taking down several of its official photos and posts, including those pertaining to the accomplishments of the Chief Executive.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, the PDP Laban president, said the party received reports from many of their candidates that their posts and shared news stories, including those that highlight the achievements of President Duterte’s administration, were “flagged and taken down as violative of Facebook community standards.”
“It is alarming that a foreign media company is blatantly controlling and censoring in violation of our freedom of speech and the right to information and expression of not only our citizens but as well as many of our government institutions. This is a direct attack on the rights and sovereignty of Filipinos,” Cusi said, adding this could be part of the “opposition’s way to challenge and discredit President Duterte’s legacy, and maliciously influence voters’ decisions ahead of the May polls.”
In a statement, the PDP Laban said some of the posts that were flagged and taken down by Facebook include the endorsement of President Duterte of the candidacy of House Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta and former Anti-Corruption czar Greco Belgica and especially PDP Laban’s endorsement of the candidacies of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for president and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte for vice president.
Last April 7, Meta/Facebook released its “Meta’s Adversarial Threat Report, First Quarter 2022” which provides a broad view into the threats that it sees across multiple policy violations in Iran, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Russia, South America and the Philippines.
In its report about the Philippines, Meta/Facebook said due to “disrupting new and emerging threats, we removed a coordinated violating network that claimed credit for bringing websites down and defacing them, including those of news entities.”
It added that using its Inauthentic Behavior (IB) policies, “we also took down tens of thousands of accounts, Pages and Groups around the world for inauthentically inflating the distribution of their content and abusive audience building, including in the Philippines”.
“Our report provides insights into how spammers leverage IB strategies to monetize people’s attention to the upcoming election in the Philippines and the measures we took to stop them,” it added.
Cusi challenged Facebook to be neutral and apolitical and to “let the people speak and express their opinions on this very important matter. Let the Filipino people decide.”
PDP-Laban secretary-general and Cabinet Secretary Melvin Matibag said Facebook’s “censorship” is unethical and against public safety and national security, especially this election season.
Matibag said the party received reports that apart from PDP Laban posts, there were also posts of some government institutions such as the Philippine News Agency and officials such as National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. that were flagged and blocked by Facebook for violating its community standards.
“This flagging, blocking and censorship affect the Filipinos’ freedom to choose and vote in favor of the candidates they truly believe in,” he said.
“It even censored the statement of our National Security Adviser, Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. Facebook curtailed the legitimate post of one of our officials, who for the sake and love of our country, called on Filipinos to unite against the New People’s Army. And what’s wrong with letting people know the truth about a listed terrorist organization by several countries, including the US, Australia and New Zealand? Indeed, this is a matter of national security,” he added.
Matibag said they were told that Facebook employs third-party fact-checkers to monitor and censor posts that are allegedly against community standards. He said Facebook should identify who the fact-checkers are and why even the official government press statements and legitimate news stories are being censored.
Facebook, in its policy rationale, said that while it allows for a range of diverse ways that identity is expressed across our global community, it also prevents impersonation and identity misrepresentation.
“Our authenticity policies are intended to create a safe environment where people can trust and hold one another accountable. In order to maintain a safe environment and empower free expression, we remove accounts that are harmful to the community, including those that compromise the security of other accounts and our services. We have built a combination of automated and manual systems to block and remove accounts that are used to persistently or egregiously abuse our Community Standards,” it said.
