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MANILA, Philippines — Progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Friday decried Facebook’s censorship of free speech as the platform removed posts about the late Jose Maria Sison.
Bayan reported that many statements and videos of its members had been taken down on the social media platform for having references to Sison, a Filipino revolutionary leader and founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“BAYAN denounced the automated censorship and warned against tech companies policing the internet on behalf of state trolls and authoritarian regimes,” it said in a statement.
“The repeated removal of posts honoring the legacy of Sison, whose life and works are featured in history classes and textbooks, reflects the systematic efforts of state-funded trolls to erase any trace of online dissent. It also exposes how the so-called community standards of Facebook are arbitrarily invoked to silence activists and revolutionaries,” the group added.
Citing investigative news website The Intercept, Bayan said that the removal of their posts is related to Facebook’s list of Dangerous Individuals and Organizations.
“The list uncritically accepts the government’s definition of ‘enemies of the state’ which includes revolutionaries and public intellectuals like Sison,” it said.
For Bayan, it is “absurd” to say that censoring posts seeks to promote public safety when Facebook permits several posts that “incite hate, bigotry, misogyny, and violence directed against activists, government critics, and Leftist groups.”
Facebook’s algorithm, the group said, is twisted against organizations targeted by the government’s red-tagging machinery while it tolerates anti-left disinformation and hate speech in the pretense of freedom of expression.
“Facebook is not just guilty of being complicit in legitimizing censorship; it is enabling harm and state-sponsored violence directed against activists,” Bayan said.
According to Bayan, Facebook should restore the posts taken down and the accounts it restricted.
The platform must likewise review its community standards, said Bayan, and ensure the protection of people and groups “who are at risk of facing state reprisals.”
If it is sincere, Facebook should also address troll operations that spew “lies, hate, and violence against activists and human rights defenders,” the group added.
Bayan urged internet users to “resist digital censorship by challenging the unjust and arbitrary actions of Facebook.”
“We enjoin fellow Filipinos and digital rights advocates to defend and assert our freedom of expression amid the intensifying attacks of state forces,” it said.
Sison passed away at 83 last week due to heart failure.