Reelectionist Senator Risa Hontiveros has committed to support a bill that will hold fake news peddlers accountable if reelected.

This as she renewed her call on Tuesday, Feb. 15, for an official investigation on “troll farms” and fake news peddlers who spread misinformation online.

"I will definitely support a bill that will hold producers of fake news accountable. Lalo na dahil nitong nakaraang kalahating dekada, apparently, taxpayer's funds ay ginamit talaga para din mag-finance ng ganitong klaseng operation (Especially in the past decade, apparently, taxpayer's funds are used to finance this kind of operation),” Hontiveros said.

The lawmaker added that it is the duty of the Senate “to protect the integrity of our government.”

In July 2021, Hontiveros was among the senators who supported Senator Panfilo Lacson's Senate Resolution No. 768, which called for an investigation on allegations that public funds were being spent on troll farms and fake social media accounts.

Hontiveros stressed that regulatory mechanisms should be imposed on platforms, such as social media entities, that fail to control the spread of fake news on their platforms.

She further said that social media companies and their websites and apps user are compelled to help stop the proliferation of fake news.

Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, cited salient features of Senate Bill (SB) No. 2209 or the proposed Special Protections Against Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) Law and SB No. 2449 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking Act of 2021.

“Under the anti-OSAEC bill, social media companies must also be held accountable — whether it was used for online sexual abuse and exploitation or human trafficking. Under the anti-trafficking law, we also made accountable those intermediaries, banks and others which are used for these dark transactions of OSAEC and human trafficking and are used make payments to people who are treated like mere things and not as humans," she explained.

“So, it should be the same for fake news, for facilitating or enabling trolling,” she stressed.

The senator, who has also been the target of fake news that questioned her credibility and ridiculed her advocacies, hopes the next administration would find ways to “dismantle this cynical operation,” saying it is an “abuse of the conscientization of the citizens.”

Hontiveros visited Pampanga on Feb. 15 to meet with local leaders and to participate in motorcade organized by her supporters in the province.

Hontiveros is pushing her "Healthy Buhay at Hanapbuhay" advocacy and "Good Jobs" agenda.