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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police has asked Facebook to shut down pages and accounts found to be spreading “fake news” amid the spread of what it has called sensationalized and overhyped crime wave, most of which turned out to be solved cases from the past or purely hoaxes.
PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. on Thursday said the Anti-Cybercrime Group was conducting its own investigation to gather more inputs to support its request for the social networking giant “to permanently take down posts that have been fact-checked as fake news.”
The statement came after a 2017 post about the discovery of a dismembered body in Quezon City where police were allegedly involved recently gained traction again on social media.
The PNP stressed that the post, which was part of the “chop-chop scam,” was proven to be a hoax by the Quezon City Police District.
Azurin cautioned the public anew to be wary of fake news circulating on social media, and to be responsible in sharing and posting information.
“Please always be mindful of the authenticity of the information and the credibility of its source,” the PNP chief said.
“Unverified information or any information that cannot be independently validated as factual should always be dealt with caution and prudence, especially if the source is dubious or unknown,” he added.
“We appeal to the public to be calm and avoid panic because the viral information is not true and never happened,” Brig. Gen. Jonnel Estomo, acting director of the National Capital Region Police Office said in a separate statement.