‘Private account must enjoy the guarantee of free speech’—DILG

DEPARTMENT of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo M. Año, is questioning the “sense of fairness” of ‘Facebook’ after taking down private account and pages supportive of the government but leaving out accounts and pages identified with the Communist Party of the Philippines.

In his statement last October 5, 2020, the highly-respected former chief of the Armed Forces also express his concern over Facebook’s “unilateral act” of taking down 57 accounts, 31 pages and 20 ‘Instagram’ accounts without prior notice nor advice to the accounts’ administrators.

Last September 22, 2020, Nathaneil Gleicher, FB head of security/cybersecurity policy, announced it struck down the accounts mentioned by Año, claiming they resorted to “coordinated inauthentic behavior” (CIB), which is a violation of their community policy.

But the pages, Año stressed, were private accounts and “must enjoy the guarantee of free speech on major issues of social concern under the Philippine Constitution and Philippine laws.”

The DILG chief also noted that in taking down the accounts, FB has not been transparent “in the conduct of its investigation on the questioned Philippine accounts, even if it maintains a large presence in the Philippines.”

“We are also concerned with Facebook’s sense of fairness,” he continued.

“For example, while it has actively deleted alleged fake pages linked to the military and police, it has surprisingly failed to root out the bots, or automated accounts, that are being maintained by political and armed groups that are actively seeking to overthrow duly constituted authority in the country.

“This raises a valid question about Facebook’s commitment to effectively police its own platform and the bias of their advisors,” Año said.

The official is referring to Maria Ressa, head of online news site, Rappler and one of FB’s two local “factchecker.”

Gleicher never hide his bias for Ressa who was convicted last June 15, 2020, by a Manila court for libel, a criminal offense in the Philippines.

It also turned out that FB’s head of public policy in the Philippines, Clare Amador, is a stalwart of the Liberal Party and even served as undersecretary at the Department of Budget and Management under the disgraced regime of Noynoy Aquino and where Rappler served as the LP’s stooge in the Philippine media.

It also turned out that FB has the ears of the front organizations of the CPP, some of whom were he ones who complained before FB that resulted to the behind the taking down of accounts that were exposing the lies of the CPP and in denouncing their recruitment using the FB as platform.

Año also supported the call by Pres. Duterte for FB to sit down with the government to discuss its behavior and activities in the Philippines.

Facebook officials, Año said, should hold talks with their government counterparts and restore the censored pages.

“(R)ecent developments highlight the need for the social media company and government to dialogue to clarify and improve the former’s policies in accordance with Philippine laws,” Año stressed.