Palace: ‘There should be a more partial arbiter of the truth’ 

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque has echoed objections to Facebook’s move to tap online news site Rappler and investigative journalism group Vera Files to fact-check fake news on the social media platform.

While Roque agreed “the efforts of Facebook to counter fake news is the solution and not legislation,” he also said on Monday that:

“However, there are those who are complaining that the chosen police of the truth so to speak are sometime partisan themselves and of course this is the problem with truth that can be subjective depending on your political perspective.”

“And that is why I commiserate with those who object to the selection of Rappler and Vera Files because they know, we know where they stand in the political spectrum,” he further said during the Palace briefing.

Rappler, whose license to operate had been earlier revoked by the Securities and Exchange Comsission (SEC), has earned the ire of President Rodrigo Duterte, who even called them a “fake news outlet.”

Vera Files, meanwhile, had earlier published documents on Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth.

Supporters of Duterte has threatened to leave Facebook and even urged fellow supporters to transfer to Russian social media platform VK.

“That is true and that’s why when I was asked earlier in a radio interview what should be done, I said well the users of Facebook should make known their wishes to Facebook itself. There should be a more partial arbiter of the truth,” he said.

“My advice is for the Facebook users to make their wishes known to Facebook and of course the possibility of shifting is always there,” he added.

The Palace official noted that “there’s a worldwide movement to delete Facebook not just because of their moves in the Philippines but because also of privacy concerns.”                        /kga