MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Wednesday assured the public that it will continue to follow proper online etiquette and proper decorum following the shut down of 100 Facebook accounts linked to the police and military.
“The Philippine National Police will continue to adhere to our institutional policy that promotes the observance of cyber etiquette and proper decorum in all public engagements including social media platforms, chat groups, and private sites,” PNP chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan said in a statement.
When sought for his reaction about the deleted Facebook accounts, Cascolan said the national police organization “respects the administrative action taken by Facebook on what they perceive to be violations of its terms of use.”
On Tuesday, the social media giant revealed that it took down over 100 fake accounts linked to the Philippine police and military forces for involvement in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”
The said accounts were believed to be issuing criticisms against groups of opposition, activism, and communism. Facebook management added the accounts were most active when talks about the Anti-Terrorist Act of 2020 started in 2019.
The PNP chief did not directly react to the shut down of the Facebook pages but noted that the PNP is disowning comments and opinions made by PNP personnel that are unrelated to the police organization’s activities.
“As far as we are concerned, official Facebook pages of the PNP and those of our lower units remain compliant with standards and continue to serve its purpose along with these objectives,” Cascolan said.
“Thus, all comments and opinions of individual personnel, associations, and sectoral groups on matters that are not related to the organization’s activities are hereby disowned by the PNP as unofficial and unauthorized,” he added.