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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Were public funds used for the fake Facebook accounts?, groups ask

Were public funds used for the fake Facebook accounts?, groups ask

Published Sep 24, 2020 09:31 am

A human rights watchdog and progressive groups raised concerns about the 100 fake domestic accounts and pages linked to the Philippine police and military taken down by social media giant Facebook.

“Were public funds and resources used for these fake accounts?” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. asked in a Twitter post.

Rights group Karapatan said the Facebooks’s move to take down the accounts was proof that state-sponsored online attacks, red-tagging and mass deception in the social media platform exist.

“These forms of online disinformation and lies have put the rights, lives, and security of human rights defenders — and even ordinary individuals — at grave risk for voicing out dissent against the government’s anti-people policies,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

”However, the more pressing question before us now is: were taxpayers’ money used to fund these Facebook accounts?,” she also asked.

On Tuesday, Facebook said it had removed a network of 57 Facebook accounts, 31 pages, and 20 Instagram accounts in the Philippines for violating its policy against foreign or government interference.

These bogus accounts appeared to have been part of systematic propaganda against
“communism, youth activists and opposition, the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing, the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines,” it said.

Palabay said they had sent a letter to Facebook and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) last June 9, asking them to investigate the online red-tagging cases in the country.

Karapatan is among the groups that have been linked by authorities to communist insurgents. Some activists and dissidents have also been red-tagged.

Akbayan Youth said the military and police should explain the alleged fake accounts and pages linked to them.

“We need to know the truth about this network, why it’s built and how it’s funded,” Akbayan Youth chair Dr. RJ Naguit said in a statement.

“We need to know that not a single centavo of taxpayers’ money is being used to endanger the lives of the youth,” he added.

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