Karapatan, a human rights group in the Philippines, called on the suspension of the Facebook pages and accounts of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and its spokesperson Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy-Partosa for being “instruments of disinformation.”
“Badoy’s account has been repeatedly restricted, albeit temporarily, by Facebook, and the wide network operated by the NTF-ELCAC continues to spread disinformation on a massive scale, inciting grave harm against anyone they tag as communists or terrorists,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay in a press statement on Friday, April 8.
The statement came after Facebook’s parent firm, Meta, took down hundreds of accounts in the country for “participating in malicious” activities ahead of the 2020 national and local elections.
Meanwhile, the human rights group reiterated that taking down malicious accounts of “dangerous organizations” will ensure that the platform is not utilized to disrupt the upcoming May 2022 elections.
This, according to Karapatan, will also protect the safety of individuals such as journalists and human rights defenders.
“Facebook must act now, before it is already too late,” Palabay added.