Palace distances self from fake Facebook accounts traced to China, PH police, military

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Wednesday distanced itself from the shutdown of social media accounts traced to China and the country’s police and military units, saying it will leave the matter up to social media giant Facebook.

“Facebook’s recent action of taking down over 100 fake accounts is a matter we leave to the sound judgment and discretion of the popular global social networking company,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

“However, we are one in advocating the truth and dismissing disinformation, lies, or hatred. We hope the social media giant would exercise prudence in all its actions to remove any doubt of bias given its power, influence, and reach,” he added.

Facebook has shut down China-based fake accounts and pages which were supportive of President Rodrigo Duterte and the possible 2022 election bid of his daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

Over 100 fake accounts linked to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines were also shut down, Facebook said.

The PNP has since assured it will follow online etiquette following the shut down of some 100 accounts linked to the police.

Coordinated inauthentic behavior was observed in the pages that were shut down.

According to Facebook’s community standards, this refers to the use of multiple accounts to “mislead people.”

JE