Robredo: Facebook ban on pro-Duterte websites a huge gift
Vice President Leni Robredo has welcomed Facebook’s ban on a local company behind spurious social media accounts known for spreading questionable articles in favor of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration and maliciously attacking his critics.
“This is huge, like a gift to the people,” Robredo said in her weekly radio program “BISErbisyong Leni” on Sunday.
But she said Facebook should continue such actions, claiming that thousands of fake troll accounts had yet to be taken down.
Fake news
“It’s not for me, but for the whole Philippines that it’s OK to criticize, as long as the basis of criticism is true,” Robredo said.
Robredo cited two Facebook pages ran by Twinmark Media Enterprises Inc. — Filipino Channel Online and Trending News Portal — as having “run fake news against opposition figures,” with her as the “number one” target.
“These are like groups of troll farms, who gang up on people who oppose the figures they support through fake news or outright harassment,” Robredo said. “Many have been bullied online just for airing their opinion.”
Twinmark’s questionable practices include “coordinated inauthentic behavior, the use of fake accounts, leading people to ad farms and selling access to Facebook pages to artificially increase distribution and generate profit.”
