Charles Teves
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Monday that President Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters will choose another social media platform after Facebook shut down pages linked to them because of coordinated inauthentic behavior.
He said that Malacañang understands Facebook’s decision as he went after Rappler and fact-checking organization Vera Files.
“Hindi ko nga maintindihan bakit iyon lang ang kinuhang fact-checker ng Facebook. Bakit naman hindi sila kumuha doon sa kabilang kampo. Tapos iyong country president pa nila diyan eh talaga namang mortal na oposisyon,” Roque said in a radio interview.
“Pupunta na lang sa ibang medium iyong mga sumusuporta sa gobyerno at iyan naman po ang kuwento noong mga supporters ni Presidente Duterte na sa mula’t mula po humahanap ng alternative venue para ipakalat ang impormasyon,” he added.
Roque also mentioned that Facebook had not actually taken down the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ official pages.
However, Facebook removed Army Captain Alexandre Cabales’ account. The AFP said that his posts were “real, authentic, and shared news.”
In a public briefing aired late evening on Monday night, Pres. Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at Facebook for taking down Philippine military “advocacy” accounts and pages from its platform.
“From what I have learned in the past days, na pati ang advocacy ng gobyerno tinatanggal (advocacies of government are being removed). So what’s the purpose of you (Facebook) being here? We allow you to operate here, hoping that you can help us also. Now, if government cannot espouse or advocate something which is good for the people, then what’s your purpose in my country?”
“What would be the point of allowing you to continue (operations) if you cannot help us?” he said. “We are not advocating mass destruction, we are not advocating massacre, it’s a fight of ideas.”
“If government can’t use it for the good of the people, then we have to talk. We have to talk sense. If you’re promoting the cause of rebellion… which was already here before you came, and so many thousands of my soldiers and citizens dying… if you cannot reconcile the idea of what your purpose is or was, then we have to talk,” he said.
“You cannot bar or prevent me from espousing the objectives of government,” he said adamantly.
Facebook recently removed various accounts that were reportedly associated with the military and police for coordinated inauthentic behavior which basically violated the social media giant’s community standards.
Malacañang earlier told Facebook to be more cautious “in all its actions to remove any doubt of bias given its power, influence and reach.”
Below is the list of pages taken down by Facebook.
Wipe out ang mga DDShit.
ctto. pic.twitter.com/BK11oz7ZMG— Pepc Paloma (@Pepsicollagen) September 24, 2020
Most of the accounts were traced back to the Fujian province in China that also supported Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
The pages were most active during the discussion of the anti-terrorism law that came up in 2019.
Facebook said the pages were promoting criticism against “opposition, activism, and communism.”
