House resumes fake news probe, warns absent vloggers

MANILA, Philippines — The tri-committee of the House of Representatives investigating the proliferation of fake news will resume its second hearing today, serving notice to absentee vloggers that failure to attend again will be dealt with accordingly.

Rep. Dan Fernandez, chairman of the House committee on public order and safety, underscored the importance of holding digital influencers accountable for their role in spreading misleading content across several media platforms.

“We are not suppressing free speech. We are investigating whether social media is being used to mislead the public, undermine institutions or facilitate foreign disinformation,” he said.

The panel is ramping up its investigation into the growing threat of disinformation and fake news online, following the issuance of show cause orders to several social media personalities and vloggers who failed to appear during the first hearing on Feb. 4.

Officials of the tri-comm have summoned representatives from government agencies, major social media platforms, legal experts and media organizations.

Among today’s expected resource persons are Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor and Anti-Money Laundering Council Chairman Eli Remolona Jr., Internal Revenue Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr., Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan Uy and Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil.

Executives from ByteDance (TikTok), Google Philippines and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) have also been invited. — Janvic Mateo