Gov’t, Press Org Denounce Facebook Flagging, Fact-Checking

Facebook’s fact-checking and flagging of pages and posts that violate the social media platform’s “community standards” and its campaign against false information has irked the government and a press organization anew.

This time, the denunciation came from the National Press Club (NPC), a major association of local journalists.

NPC called the flagging of posts with false information and fact-checking as “acts of harassment and intimidation and a brazen curtailment of civil liberties, particularly the right to freedom of information and expression,” according to NPC president Paul M. Gutierrez.

NPC went on further to say that the flagging of pages and fact-checking is “an assault on the country’s sovereignty.”

Furthermore, NPC called Facebook as the “Lord of the Realm of Social Media,” by flagging down and warning several public sector agencies, such as the Philippine News Agency (PNA), a state-run news organization.

Moreover, the press association also lambasted media firm Rappler and independent, non-profit fact-checker Vera Files, for their “callousness in warning Philippine national security adviser, Secretary Hermogenes Esperon over his post involving the threat posed to our nation’s security by the communist terrorist groups,” Gutierrez added.

Gutierrez also called for different concerned government agencies to “discipline” Facebook, Rappler, and Vera Files, adding that the social media platform and the fact-checkers are demonstrating their “capacity to resort to the neo-fascist method of wholesale censorship— and of an entire country at that— unmindful that it is already trampling on the laws and the sovereignty of our Republic,” he said.

The NPC statement further added that foreign entities must not be allowed to dictate Filipinos “because it is clear fascism, not democracy.”

Government irked

Moreover, different government agencies such as the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) have denounced Facebook, tagging the social media platform as having “biased fact-checkers.”

Interior Undersecretary Jonathan E. Malaya said in a statement that the “imprudence of Facebook to warn Secretary Esperon on a national security issue is unthinkable and downright offensive as the social media platform has taken on the role of Big Brother with the power to censure the social media posts of the NSA himself on matters of national security.”

Department of National Defense (NDN) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Friday that he stands with Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., whose post was given a warning by Facebook.

“The Department of National Defense stands behind the NTF-ELCAC and its Vice-Chair, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., in airing the concerns of the Filipino people against the threat of the armed communist insurgency,” Lorenzana said in a statement.

The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), the leading political party in the country, also expressed alarm over Facebook’s flagging of several party official posts, photos, and pages of its national and local candidates.

The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP Laban) Alfonso Cusi pointed the blame on the opposition in a press statement, saying that the flagging was done as an effort to discredit the administration, and to “maliciously” influence the votes come the May elections.

What happened?

Multiple senior government officials and agencies are being flagged by Facebook and fact-checkers.

Facebook issued a restriction warning against a post of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on April 14, 2022, in which he urged Filipinos to “unite against armed struggle,” adding that organizations that support communist group members have allegedly already “infiltrated Congress.”

Moreover, Facebook also allegedly flagged several good governance initiatives of the government such as economic recovery programs and the delivery of basic social services, and “infrastructure projects to our communities, IP (Indigenous Peoples) areas, and the hinterland barangays,” according to a statement from the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

The social media giant has also flagged multiple posts of state-run media organizations such as the PNA and Radyo Pilipinas.

The accounts of several editors and reporters were also flagged.

NTF-ELCAC spokesperson and Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy described Facebook’s move as “pathetic, cowardly, desperate, and lutang (drifting).” (GFB)