Palace takes shot at Rappler anew for 'spreading fake news'

Malacañang once again questioned Facebook's decision to tap Rappler for the social media giant's third-party fact-checking program aimed at fighting the spread of fake news.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said they found it "ironic" for Facebook to tap Rappler even as they agreed with the social networking site's objective to combat disinformation, misinformation and fake news.

"We find it ironic, however, that the one chosen by Facebook to verify posts by media outfits or bloggers, whether a story or content is hoax, false or misleading, has a record of spreading fake news," Panelo said on Wednesday, amid the tiff between Rappler and political news site Politiko over the latter's article which was tagged by Rappler as "false."

"This, not to mention that its chosen partner also has a reputation of being predisposed against majority, if not all, of the policies of this administration, as can be easily gleaned through the form of its published articles," he said. 

Malacañang, through then-presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, last April called for a "more partial arbiter of truth" after Facebook tapped Rappler and Vera Files, media outfits which have run articles critical of the administration and its policies, to counter fake news on the social media giant.

Panelo's statement came on the heels of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa's arrest for a cyberlibel case over an article published on the news website in 2012. The Palace has yet to comment on this.

"As the ultimate audience, our people have become more knowledgeable and more discerning in reading and analyzing the news. They too have become more critical against those licensed media companies which resort to negative propaganda and biased and distorted stories," Panelo said.

"As such, we leave the matter to the netizens in determining which online media outlet they wish to patronize or believe in. We just hope that the program being pursued by Facebook will not evolve into a tool which censors the good news arising out of the programs of this administration," he said. —JST, GMA News