‘Holiday’ from using Facebook possible, DICT warns

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino users may soon experience a “holiday” from Facebook and other platforms as the government enforces a zero tolerance policy against online harm, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) warned.

ICT Secretary Henry Aguda said at a press briefing yesterday at the CICC headquarters in Quezon City that the stance comes amid a surge of “escalated” complaints on the sale of illegal vapes online and the continued failure of platforms to quickly take down fake news flagged by the DICT.

Pressed to identify which social media site the DICT was focusing on, Aguda admitted that Facebook was at the center of their scrutiny.

“Actually, the reason there is so much harmful content on that platform is because they are the biggest,” Aguda said.

“There is no week when we don’t have coordination with Facebook (on fake news). Eighty percent of social media users are on Facebook. Naturally, since they’re the largest, the lion’s share of the issues (and benefits) is with them. Many people are connected because of them, while others do e-commerce through them,” he added.

Renato Paraiso, CICC deputy executive director, said collaboration with social media and e-commerce platforms is underway but warned of possible shutdowns for persistent non-compliance.

“There really are contentious issues,” Paraiso admitted. “But… there are some things that are non-negotiable when it comes to national security and concerns on occurrence of destabilization. Those who would not comply, we would be compelled to exercise the remedies available to us. And one of these is to block these sites.

“So to our countrymen, there might be a time when we will implement a holiday on these non-compliant platforms, whether it is your social media platform or your marketing platforms, you may not see them for a while until they comply. So we are giving you ample warning,” he added.