DICT chided for failing to stop online scams, fake news

MANILA, Philippines—  Sen. Raffy Tulfo on Wednesday chided the  Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for its failure to stop fake news and online scams.

At a budget hearing in the Senate,  Tulfo  slammed the DITC’s inaction on investment scams that used  his name and  other prominent personalities.  

“Paulit-ulit na lang ito for more than a year, and I have  been communicating with you guys and  telling you na please do something about this. Not only me but other personalities  at maraming naniniwala at maraming nag iinvest doon because our names  were used and you guys are  not doing anything or  what have you done?” he asked.

(This has been happening repeatedly for over a year, and I have been communicating with you, and  telling you to please do something about this. Not only me but other personalities,  and many people believe in this and are investing because our names were used and you guys are  not doing anything or  what have you done?)

“Tell me, anong mga programa meron kayo para i-stop itong mga ganitong klaseng scam at modus at marami nang naloloko,” the senator said.

(Tell me, what programs do you have in place to stop these kinds of scams and modus? Many people have already been deceived.)

Without getting any help from the DITC, Tulfo said his staff contacted Facebook to have all these  investment scam videos deleted.

“Pero kayo wala, wala kayong nagawa (You did not do anythging),” he went on. 

“Kayo may budget sa mga ganitong klaseng mga sitwasyon, sa ganitong klaseng  mga problema,  wala  kayong  nagawa. Pero yung mga tao ko may nagawa.”

(But you, you did nothing. You have a budget for situations like this, for problems like these, and yet you did nothing. But my people have done something.)

“Kung baga, kanya-kanya kami, yung mga nabibiktima ng fake news,  kami ang gumagawa ng paraan para mapa-delete yun. Kayo wala.  Hangang satsat lang kayo, e, hanggang programa-programa  kayo and then ask budget and then come up  with this program etc. but you’re not doing anything. You’re not walking the talk,”   the senator added.

(In other words, the victims  of fake news are the ones working to get it deleted. You’re not doing anything. You just talk, hold programs,  and then ask for a budget and then come up  with this program etc. but you’re not doing anything. You’re not walking the talk)

DTI Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy apologized if there are “some other  items” that  they were unable to do.

But he pointed out that the DICT has a record of  URLS   (uniform resource locators) which  they reported to  various social media platforms.  

“Most of which were blocked or removed, others were labeled,”  Dy pointed out.

In the absence of a law regulating the social media, the official also said that the  DICT can only submit a report but the decision to either remover of de-categorize violative content  would still  be up to the social media platforms.