WITH just 14 days to go before the May 9, 2022 local and national elections, social media platform giant, Facebook, has dropped all pretense of non-involvement in Philippine politics, taking down or flagging (censuring) as many pro-government, pro-Marcos and simply anti-Robredo group and individual accounts in the last few days.
As of this writing, Facebook has added into its “bucket list” of those it has censured and blocked from using their accounts are, the PDP-Laban, the political party of Pres. Duterte, columnist Rigoberto Tiglao and as of Monday, April 25, 2022, the account of Atty. Vic Rodriguez, the spokesperson of leading presidential candidate, former senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong/BBM’ Marcos Jr.
Facebook said it is shutting down Rodriguez’s account for 30 days while Tiglao’s account has been suspended for 3 months or 90 days, effective April 14, 2022, according to Tiglao’s post on Twitter.
Since last week, Facebook, in connivance with its opinionated ‘fact checkers,’ Rappler and Vera Files—both are American funded local news sites– have started their joint assault against the Filipinos’ guaranteed rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression under the Constitution by issuing a “warning” on April 14, 2022, against a post made by National Security Adviser (NSA) Secretary Esperon.
Esperon was warned by Facebook that his post calling on Filipinos to unite against the Communist Party of the Philippines, its armed wing, the New People’s Army and its united front group, the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), “violated” the foreign company’s “standards.”
Although this received wide condemnation both from the government, the public and even among the responsible media organizations in the country headed by the National Press Club (NPC) as the warning is a violation of Article 3 (Bill of Rights) of the Constitution, Facebook and its fact checkers remain simply undeterred.
Beginning on Friday, April 22, 2022, Facebook has started blocking, also purportedly for violation of its community standards, the account of the Philippine News Agency (PNA) and the various accounts of other government public information platforms.
As of this writing, Facebook has added into its “bucket list” of those it has censured and blocked from using their accounts are, the PDP-Laban, the political party of Pres. Duterte, columnist Rigoberto Tiglao and as of Monday, April 25, 2022, the account of Atty. Vic Rodriguez, the spokesperson of leading presidential candidate, former senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong/BBM’ Marcos Jr. Facebook said it is shutting down Rodriguez’s account for 30 days while Tiglao’s account has been suspended for 3 months or 90 days, effective April 14, 2022, according to Tiglao’s post on Twitter.
Facebook also did not forget to also block or censure the various accounts connected with the National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), including the accounts of the members of task force’s “Stratcom” (Strategic Communications) Cluster.
In all of these, Facebook merely said it would be “investigating” the incidents and would “unblock” the flagged posts accordingly.
But as of this writing, some of the owners of the blocked accounts insist their previous posts, especially the articles they shared from the PNA website, are yet to be re-posted by Facebook.
Similarly, Facebook has stopped the circulation of the video clip of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison where he warned of instigating violence should Marcos and Davao City mayor Sara Duterte win the May 9 elections and forcibly install Robredo as president with the help of the United States.
Facebook said it blocked the spread of Sison’s video clip after it was classified as “fake” by its fact checker, Rappler.
On the other hand…
In an anti-Marcos and anti-government article by the New York Times last April 13, 2022 written by Sui-Lee and Camille Elemia (‘The Philippines Toppled One Marcos, Now His Son May Become President), it quoted the boast of former senator, Sergio ‘Serge’ Osmeña III, that “he had hired 10,000 volunteers to wage a counteroffensive against the Marcos campaign by releasing videos on the economic devastation and human rights violations of the Marcos years” (here is the link to the article).
With Facebook and its fact checkers apparently now working in tandem with the camp of Robredo to stifle, silence and block any post even by government offices, it is no wonder that Robredo’s glossy articles have now clearly started to dominate social media and the mainstream media.
That “10,000 volunteers” hired by Osmeña to demonize Marcos while expectedly boosting the image of Robredo under the controlled social media environment now imposed by Facebook in the Philippines can go a long way in influencing the result of the May 9 polls.
And unless the concerned government agencies act swiftly and firmly to assert the country’s independence and protect the Bill of Rights as suggested by the NPC, those targeted by Facebook for takedown can only gnash their teeth and lament the current state of affairs.
In a message to the media early today, April 26, 2022, Rodriguez only has this to say:
“FB/Meta suspended my account because I am for Bongbong Marcos.
“This is censorship of the highest degree and interference on a sovereign act, digital terrorism no less.”
“I will not appeal for I have not violated anything. My duty is to the Filipino people and not to FB/Meta.
“I will continue communicating with the many other forms of media available that are free from any filter, censorship or manipulation from foreign platform providers.”