Senate probe on dummy Facebook accounts sought amid surge

Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan on Tuesday said the sudden surge of dummy Facebook accounts of students, government officials, journalists, and other netizens must be investigated by the Senate.

In filing Senate Resolution No. 444, Pangilinan said there is a need to determine if the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 needs to be amended, and to explore the possibility of regulating social media platforms "in accordance with the policy that respects the rights and freedoms of all Filipinos guaranteed by the Constitution."

"There is a need to look into our existing laws to increase the extent of liability and possible regulation of service providers or content hosts such as Facebook and other social media platforms," Pangilinan's resolution read.

"Legislation must be carefully crafted so as to balance the rights and freedoms accorded to every Filipino by the Constitution and the public interest to be protected from dangerous acts online," it added.

Pangilinan took note that the surge of duplicate Facebook accounts happened after the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act, which is now up for President Rodrigo Duterte's signature, received mounting opposition from the public.

"Some Facebook users reported to have received threats from said dummy accounts using their names. The threats even go as far as calling said users 'terrorists'," Pangilinan said.

"We should not be utterly defenseless against social media manipulation and threats. We must use our laws to fight the fakes online." 

Facebook already issued a statement on the issue and urged the netizens to continue reporting these accounts.

"We understand the concerns raised by our community in the Philippines. We're investigating reports of suspicious activity on our platform and taking action on any accounts that we find to be in violation of our policies," it said.

The Department of Justice said it is investigating the matter and is looking into computer-related identity theft under the anti-cybercrime law as a possible violation.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, author of the anti-terror bill, said the duplicate Facebook accounts of some Filipinos may have actually been created as part of "scare tactics" of those against the proposed legislation. --KBK, GMA News