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Pro-Duterte pages among those removed from Facebook due to spam behavior


Some pages and accounts showing support for President Rodrigo Duterte have been removed from Facebook due to supposed violation of spam and authenticity policies.

According to a statement from Facebook issued on Tuesday, a total of 95 pages and 39 accounts were removed including pages such as Duterte Media, Duterte sa Pagbabago Bukas, DDS, Duterte Phenomenon and DU30 Trending News.

 

A page called "Manang Imee," which shows support for Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, was also deleted.

"We don’t want this kind of behavior on Facebook — and we’re investing heavily in both people and technology to keep bad content off our services," Facebook said.

"We’re monitoring for a range of abuses on Facebook, including spam behavior, and will remove any account or page that breaks our rules," the company added.

The social network also said those pages and accounts have been calling on the public to "visit low quality websites that contain little substantive content and are full of disruptive advertisements."

Aside from pages that have political content, those that have entertainment purposes were also removed from Facebook: Hot Babes, Bossing Vic, Like and Win and Karlo ang Probinsyano.

Facebook noted that at least one of the 95 pages had accumulated 4.8 million followers.

The company said it now has more than 20,000 individuals who have been working on security and content review of pages and accounts across the world.

"This is some of the most important work being done at Facebook. This take down is a small step in the right direction, and we will continue working to find and remove more bad content," Facebook said.

'Willing to help'

The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) on Tuesday said that it is looking into the removal of these pro-Duterte pages and accounts.

"We are actually looking into the matter para malaman din namin kung ano 'yung parameters nila... at least malalaman namin kung anong pwedeng maitulong ng PCOO," Communications Assistant Secretary Marie Rafael-Banaag said.

She also said that the PCOO has been going around the country to educate Filipinos on the responsible sharing of information, whether they are pro-administration or not.

"Either pro or against the administration, we had always been fair in so far as disseminating information. We don't put color in everything that we do, especially in the campaign, doon sa pagpapalawig po doon sa paglaban natin sa disinformation," she claimed. —Anna Felicia Bajo with a report by Dona Magsino/KG/BM, GMA News

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