The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday, Jan. 27, warned the public of the proliferation of fake accounts and profiles, on various social media platforms, impersonating their officials.
In a statement, the poll body said any Facebook friend request purporting to be coming from a poll commissioner or other key officials should "not be accepted, but instead immediately reported for community standards violations." It added that Twitter profiles impersonating key officials of the Commission must "immediately be reported for violation of the platform's impersonation policy." "These blatant attempts to steal the online identity of Comelec officials are potentially part of a broader attempt to undermine the integrity of the elections," Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said.
"Apart from closely coordinating with social media platforms to take down these profiles and accounts, the Comelec stands ready to take legal action against the perpetrators," he added.