Malacañang believes that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has nothing to do with the fake Facebook accounts and pages taken down by the social media giant for violating its policies.
(OPS / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque made the statement Thursday after Facebook said that it removed 57 Facebook accounts, 31 pages, and 20 Instagram accounts for violating its policy against foreign or government interference. The company said they found links of this network to the Philippine military and police.
Roque said that the pages and accounts taken down by Facebook do not belong to the AFP.
"We have to believe the Armed Forces of the Philippines when they said that they have no official pages taken down by Facebook," he said.
"So all these pages, obviously, are not pages of the Armed Forces of the Philippines or the government of the Philippines," he added.
According to Facebook, the network of fake accounts and pages posted in Filipino and English were about local news and events, including domestic politics; military activities against terrorism; pending anti-terrorism bill; criticism of communism, youth activists, and opposition, and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines (CPP-NPA-NDF).
The company added that they found links of this network to the Philippine military and Philippine police. The network likewise spent around $1,100 for ads on Facebook paid for in Philippine peso.
Roque hinted that government officials have the freedom to voice out their sentiments on certain issues.
"Even government officials do have freedom of expression. What is prohibited is if this is done in official mediums maintained by the Republic of the Philippines," he said.
However, Roque said that the code of conduct for government officials extends to their personal social media accounts.