Rep. Biazon seeks House probe into surge of fake Facebook accounts

Muntinlupa City Representative Ruffy Biazon has filed a resolution calling for an investigation into what he described as a possible "breach" in the system of social media site Facebook, following the emergence of fake and dummy accounts, that may have compromised the safety and private information of its users.

House Resolution 968, a copy of which was tweeted by Biazon on Wednesday, directed the appropriate committee of the House of Representatives to conduct the investigation in aid of legislation.

A number of fake and dummy Facebook accounts under the names of actual individuals, mostly students, emerged over the weekend, causing alarm among those whose profiles were duplicated.

Biazon, in his resolution, lamented the occurrence of the "breach" in Facebook's system, despite the security measures that the social media site said it put in place.

"This apparent breach opens up its users, particularly the youth, to a slew of exploitation like the threat of cybercrime such as online bullying, harassment, identity theft, violations of privacy, and others," he said.

"It is the responsibility of Facebook to ensure not just the resolution of the current batch of cloned accounts but more importantly, to prevent the occurrence of the same," he added.

Biazon stressed the need to create a joint task force composed of the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police (PNP) Cybercrime Group, the National Privacy Commission, and other government and non-government agencies to look into this incident.

"[This] may be in order so that a thorough investigation on the matter may be conducted and remedial measures be put into place to prevent such similar situations from occurring in the future," he added.

PNP chief Police General Archie Francisco Gamboa has already directed the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group to look into the emergency of the fake Facebook accounts, while the National Privacy Commission said it is also now "monitoring reports" on the incident.

Facebook likewise urged its users to "continue reporting any accounts they believe may be inauthentic."

On the other hand, 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.

A similar investigation is also being sought in the Senate.  —LBG, GMA News