Año says Facebook not transparent, questions purging of accounts

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Monday expressed concern over Facebook's purging of pages and accounts, allegedly linked to the police and military, due to coordinated inauthentic behavior.

In a press statement, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said that Facebook's move was done "without prior consultation nor were the administrators of these accounts afforded due process."

"These pages were private accounts and must enjoy the guarantee of free speech on major issues of social concern under the Philippine Constitution and Philippine laws," Año said.

He also alleged that the social media giant has not been transparent in its  investigation that the questioned Philippine accounts, and questioned the fairness of Facebook in taking down the accounts and pages.

He claimed that while Facebook had removed alleged fake pages linked to the military and police, it has "failed to root out the bots, or automated accounts, that are being maintained by political and armed groups that are actively seeking to overthrow duly constituted authority in the country."

"This raises a valid question about Facebook’s commitment to effectively police its own platform and the bias of their advisors," Año said.

"While it has taken down alleged pro-government pages, it has allowed unfettered access to hate speech spreaders and purveyors of fake news from communist terrorist groups, for example, who are actively working to bring down our democratic way of life," he added.

The DILG chief then called on Facebook to have discussions with the Philippine government to address the issue, roll back changes, and restore the Facebook pages in question, if possible.

"Such action would further reinforce what Mark Zuckerberg has been saying all along—that it’s a marketplace of ideas that brings people together so they can then share information and ideas about the things that they’re passionate about," he said.

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte has questioned Facebook's move of purging some accounts supposedly connected to the security forces.

Amid concerns that Facebook might be banned in the country, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte only prefers a dialogue between the government and the Facebook management over the shutdown of accounts and pages. — BM, GMA News