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.