Facebook asked to help track down dummy account makers

PNP chief Archie Gamboa during PTV live press briefing /screenshot from PTV Laging Handa press conferen

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday appealed to Facebook administrators to help in track down individuals responsible for the creation of duplicate accounts in order to speed up the filing of criminal complaints.

“Nagiging uso kasi yung fake accounts, they just post and easily, they will leave after. It will really determine yung pag-file ng kaso kung gaano kabilis matrace yung owners,” PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said during a Laging Handa press briefing when pressed for updates on the probe into duplicate Facebook accounts as reported by students, alumni and faculty of some universities.

(The trend is to create fake accounts, they just post and leave the account after. The help of Facebook administrators will really determine how fast we can trace the users and file cases.)

“That’s why we need the cooperation of Facebook administrators or may-ari ng Facebook para mapabilis ito kung hindi sila papahabulin agad pwede sila magdeactivate  at magmomonitor na naman tayo,” he added.

(That’s why we need the cooperation of Facebook administrators or Facebook owners so that we can speed up the investigation if they cannot be tracked, they can deactivate and lose the accounts and we would have to monitor again.)

Gamboa said he already ordered PNP- Anti-Cybercrime Group to probe the surge in the number of dummy accounts on the social media platform.

Police investigators, however, have yet to determine if opposition to the  Anti-Terror bill is connected to the creation of dummy accounts, Gamboa said.

“We still have to find out the connection kasi ayaw namin magconclude without appropriate basis but once we can profile those na gumagawa ng fake accounts then we can have our own conclusions. As of yet wala pa kaming definite na connection,” Gamboa said.

(We still have to find out the connection because we don’t want to conclude without basis, but once we can profile those making fake accounts then we can have our own conclusions. As of yet we can’t say there is a definite connection.)

Thousands of students, facultiy members and alumni of universities, as well as members of the media, discovered that found their accounts were cloned over  the weekend.

The UP Office of the Student Regent said the dummy accounts surfaced after protests were staged in UP campuses due to their call to junk the Anti-Terrorism bill.

Facebook vowed to investigate the matter.

The Department of Justice likewise, ordered its Office of Cybercrime to coordinate with the National Bureau of Investigation and PNP to conduct an investigation.

GSG