DILG set to meet with Facebook execs next week
MANILA, Philippines — Executives of social networking website Facebook are set to meet with ranking members of the interior department next week, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said Thursday.
Speaking at a webinar for information officers of the DILG, Año said that he expects the two sides to come up with solutions "on how social media can help the government fight fake news and disinformation."
The DILG chief again pointed out that the pages were taken down "without prior consultation and due notice," though Facebook reserves the right to take down accounts it deems necessary in its User Agreement.
Section 4.2 of the social networking platform's terms of service, for instance, reads: "If we determine that you have clearly, seriously or repeatedly breached our Terms or Policies, including in particular our Community Standards, we may suspend or permanently disable access to your account. We may also suspend or disable your account if you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights or where we are required to do so for legal reasons."
“Factual information can empower people to partake in nation-building such as government’s efforts to control COVID-19,” said Año.
"[C]riminals and extremist groups have taken advantage of the pandemic to sabotage the delivery of government services," he also said.
RELATED: Año cries foul over busted Facebook accounts, slams company 'bias'
This comes after the social networking giant earlier took down what it called networks of fake accounts engaged in "coordinated and inauthentic behavior" and that it said were linked to the Philippine military and police.
"Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found links to Philippine military and Philippine police," Facebook's Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a post announcing the takedowns.
"We removed 155 accounts, 11 Pages, 9 Groups and 6 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against foreign or government interference which is coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign or government entity," he added.
In response, President Rodrigo Duterte at the time went on to accuse the social networking platform of encouraging communists, a label his administration has comfortably slapped on its critics.
The DILG and red-tagging
Support for and membership in an activist group does not mean support for or membership in the Communist Party of the Philippines or the New People's Army but the government has been pushing this narrative as early as 2017, when President Rodrigo Duterte accused transport group Piston, human rights group Karapatan and labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno of committing rebellion.
Año is a member of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, the government's anti-communist task force which has been the source of disinformation against government critics, including journalists and activists, over the coronavirus pandemic, having been caught in a lie on more than one occasion.
The interior chief himself has said that enforcers caught red-tagging won't be tolerated, though he continues to defend the pages taken down by Facebook.
The national police, an attached bureau under the DILG, has also used its official channels to target and publicly red-tag critical groups and figures, contrary to its own social media rules and protocols. Despite warnings from police leadership, police pages continue to post similar content.
RELATED: Dura 'Likes': PNP social media rules and what police actually post
Just on Thursday, Philip Jamilla, public information researcher of rights monitor Karapatan was red-tagged in a graphic posted by an account called @pcrcabuyaocps that is followed by the official Philippine National Police Twitter account. In the graphic, which reads: "No to CPP-NPA-NDF. Hands off our children!"
"We're going to rally because we have P750 from the CPP-NPA," the graphic reads, though it is unclear to whom the quote is attributed.
Follow this thread for updates on social media attacks, trolling, and other threats
Elon Musk said late Friday he would reinstate the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended after he accused them of endangering his family.
"The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now," the Twitter owner tweeted.
Musk carried out a Twitter poll asking whether he should restore the suspended accounts now or in a week's time. Nearly 59 percent of the 3.69 million who took part said he should restore the accounts now.
Musk had drawn anger and warnings from the EU and UN after suspending the accounts of half a dozen prominent journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post.
The latest controversy began when Musk on Wednesday suspended @elonjet, an account that tracked flights of his private jet. -- AFP
Donald Trump promised his Truth Social platform would offer a home for free speech, an unfiltered way to reach people.
Six months later, the former US president's amplification of conspiratorial memes and messages after the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago estate indicates that extremist content has flourished.
Still, with midterm elections looming, an AFP analysis shows his new bullhorn may be far less politically relevant than his past pronouncements on Twitter and Facebook.
"His reach is much smaller," said Mike Rothschild, the author of a book on the QAnon conspiracy theory. "Truth Social is pretty much MAGA-only territory."
Trump's August 30 posting spree on Truth Social indicates a lurch toward the darkest corners of conspiracy theory, almost two years after he lost the presidency to Joe Biden.
Trump interacted with a meme that was shared in reply to a post highlighting the writings of "Q," the anonymous persona whose posts on fringe forums gave rise to QAnon and its baseless claims about a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles including Hillary Clinton. -- AFP
Australia's consumer watchdog launched legal action against Facebook on Wednesday, alleging the social media giant "misled" thousands of Australians by collecting user data from a free VPN service advertised as private.
The platform could face a fine if found guilty of deceiving users, as Australia takes an increasingly assertive stance towards powerful US tech titans.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accused Facebook and two of its subsidiaries — Facebook Israel and Onavo Inc — of misleading people who downloaded its virtual private network (VPN) app Onavo Protect, by collecting and using their "very detailed and valuable personal activity data".
Records of which apps they accessed and the amount of time they spent using them were among the data allegedly used to support Facebook's market research. — AFP
Google has been given two weeks to respond to a US labor board complaint accusing the internet giant of using surveillance, interrogation and other tactics to spy on activist employees.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint filed late Wednesday stemmed from the dismissal a year ago of a quartet of employees dubbed the "Thanksgiving Four."
The workers sought a federal investigation into their dismissal, alleging they were sacked in retaliation for their labor organizing efforts, while Google maintained that the employees had violated data security policies. — AFP
Following the lead of Twitter and YouTube, Facebook on Monday removed several pages linked to former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, whose content pushed unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
According to the human rights group Avaaz, the social media giant took down seven pages directly linked to Bannon that had 2.45 million followers and that the group flagged to Facebook content monitors on Friday.
"Our team had identified some of these pages earlier this year for repeatedly sharing misinformation on false 'voter fraud' claims potentially reaching 10 million views in the last week alone," an Avaaz spokesman said.
"We've removed several clusters of activity for using inauthentic behavior tactics to artificially boost how many people saw their content,” a Facebook spokesperson said. — AFP
- Latest
- Trending
