Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair George Erwin Garcia said they entered into an agreement with Meta, Google and TikTok to take down violent and false posts ahead of the 2025 elections.
Garcia guested the second-year anniversary of the Manila City Hall Reporters' Association's "Balitaan sa Harbor View" on October 22.
Garcia said the Comelec will not act directly on the posts that contain indecency and disinformation as this may be taken as a violation of free speech.
"Pupuwede sila (social media platforms) magtanggal, wala kaming magagawa... dun sila magrereklamo sa platform concerned (The social media platforms can take down posts, we cannot do anything... They can complain to the platforms concerned)," Garcia said.
The said platforms, he said, have also agreed to work with Comelec in immediately taking down the accounts of unregistered candidates.
He also called on the political candidates to have their social media accounts registered up to December 13, 2024.
“Wala naman pong limit kahit ilan basta't naka-rehistro sa amin. Otherwise, pupuwede po naming ipatanggal ang lahat ng posts na andiyan lalo pa't ang purpose ay ikampanya ang isang kandidato (There’s no limit on the numbers of social media platforms as long as they are registered. Otherwise, we can remove all their posts campaigning for a candidate)," he said.
"Hinding-hindi po namin pakikialaman 'yung content ng nakalagay sa posts dahil pag pinakialaman namin 'yan lalabas na violation 'yan ng freedom of expression at freedom of speech (We will not comment on the content of the posts because if we do, they might think that we’re violating freedom of expression)," Garcia added.
The Comelec Chair said the rules or guidelines governing the use of social media platforms will be a test in preparation for the 2028 presidential and vice-presidential elections.