A faction of the ruling PDP-Laban on Monday hit Facebook Philippines for flagging the party’s official posts and photos as well as the pages of its national and local candidates for violating the platform’s community standards by spreading false information.
In a statement, the leader of one faction of the PDP-Laban, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, accused the opposition of being behind the flagging of his party’s content, saying this was part of efforts to discredit the Duterte administration and “maliciously influence” voters ahead of the May polls.
“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.
He challenged Facebook to stay “neutral and apolitical” in the last few days of the election campaign and during the proceedings of the May 9 national and local elections.
“Let the people speak and express their opinions on this very important matter. Let the Filipino people decide,” he added.
PDP Laban Secretary-General and Cabinet Secretary Melvin Matibag said Facebook’s censorship through their so-called community standards is “unethical” and “against public safety and national security.”
“This flagging, blocking and censorship affect the Filipinos’ freedom to choose and vote in favor of the candidates they truly believe in,” Matibag said.
Matibag questioned the third-party fact-checkers that partnered with Facebook Philippines to prevent false news from spreading on the social media platform.
In 2018, Facebook announced its partnership with VERA files and Rappler to help fight the spread of fake news.
“I was told that Facebook employs third-party fact-checkers to monitor and censor posts that are allegedly against community standards. Who are these fact-checkers that even official government press statements and legitimate news stories are being censored?” he said.
Some of the PDP-Laban 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.
On Sunday, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) also condemned the multiple flagging of its official posts.
NTF-ELCAC spokesperson and Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy described Facebook’s move as “pathetic, cowardly, [and] desperate.”
Posts of government institutions, including the Philippine News Agency, were flagged and blocked by Facebook for violating its community standards.
Since Saturday night, Facebook has been notifying those who have shared the news articles from PNA, tagging the posts as violations of the platform’s community standards on cybersecurity.
A post of National Security Adviser (NSA) Hermogenes Esperon Jr. in which he claimed that communists had “infiltrated Congress through the party-list system” was also flagged by the social media giant.
Meta head of politics and government outreach for Asia and the Pacific Roy Tan said Facebook is already investigating the issue.
The National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC) on Sunday also denounced the ongoing ‘flagging’ being made by Facebook and its fact checkers on nearly all public platforms.
In a statement, NPC described the flagging not only as acts of harassment and intimidation and a brazen curtailment of civil liberties, particularly the right to freedom of information and expression but more importantly, an assault on the country’s sovereignty.
