Palace media task force working with Facebook to address online harassment of journalists

The government has taken steps to address the online harassment of journalists, an official of President Rodrigo Duterte’s media security task force said Tuesday.

Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) Executive Director Joel Egco said that the agency and social media giant Facebook “are going to actively engage with each other” to tackle attacks against media practitioners.

“They will accompany us in future [media safety] seminars. Because Facebook also has their own safety seminar, umiikot sila. We are going to marry our efforts, coordinate and then we go together,” Egco, a former journalist, said at a news conference in Malacañang.

Egco said they have already met with officials from Facebook’s public policy division.

“Nag-usap na kami, puwedeng i-report sa kanila and then they check their community standards...ite-take down nila,” he said.

The Palace official, however, clarified that the government cannot dictate to Facebook what to do.

“You know the problem is this, Facebook has a dilemma. You know what their dilemma is? Because there are true accounts that behave like trolls and there are troll accounts that behave like real people,” he said.

“They have certain community standards that they have to follow. For instance, pag minura ako, thine-threaten ako, I cannot just tell Facebook ‘take that down’ because eventually I may be able to use that as evidence against that person if I am going to file a case. So medyo hirap sila doon,” Egco added.

“We can only coordinate with Facebook, we clarify that. We cannot tell them what to do, they cannot tell us what to do.”

At least 85 cases of attacks, including 14 cases of online harassment supposedly perpetrated mostly by the President’s supporters, against the media have taken place since Duterte assumed office in June 2016, according to a joint report of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ).

Released in time for the World Press Freedom Day in May, the report said Duterte "has unleashed much more violence against the autonomy of the press than has been seen" since the end of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, making the practice of journalism "an even more dangerous endeavor."

“President Duterte has recklessly accused the news media of inaccuracy and bias, of deliberately spreading ‘fake news’ supposedly to discredit his administration,” the report said.

“These accusations are echoed mostly online by Duterte supporters, some of whom have even incited others to commit violence against journalists.”

The report added hate speech and threats “are perennial and rampant occurrences in the comment sections of reports critical of the administration.”

Last week, Facebook also removed 95 pages and 39 accounts—including several pro-Duterte accounts—due to supposed violation of spam and authenticity policies.

The Palace had said the administration remains committed to guaranteeing the safety and security of all Filipinos, particularly of media practitioners in the country. — BM, GMA News