Senatorial bet Florin Hilbay said Facebook’s move to take down 200 dubious pages and accounts linked to Duterte social media strategist Nic Gabunada showed how this administration manipulated social media to make President Rodrigo Duterte win in 2016.
“I think merong pattern yung tinatanggal ng Facebook na mga pages are pro-administration. I think itong 2016, President Duterte was able to use… ngayon nakikita natin yung basehan ng kanyang popular support that brought him to the presidency…the manipulation of current technology in particular, social media to create the appearance of popularity and ground support,” said Hilbay in a press conference.
“Di ko alam syempre kung it’s too late for Facebook to do that, pero of course we are happy na yung mga pages nagagamit sa propaganda na nagagamit ng administrasyong ito ay unti-unting tinatanggal na,” Hilbay added.
Facebook took down 67 pages, 68 Facebook accounts, 40 groups and 25 Instagram accounts not because of their content but because of their suspicious behavior apparently dictated by a network controlled by Gabunada.
Facebook has become the default social media app of an overwhelming majority of Filipinos epsecially after Facebook was offered for free (with no need to pay for data load) by mobile phone firms in 2016.
“Sa totoo lang, and ito yung ako mismo nagulat. Parang meron talagang malaking disparity talaga doon sa online behavior ng mga tao pati doon sa offline engagement natin sa mga tao. Online, napakaingay, sobrang polarized, napakabastos ng pananalita ng mga tao, nakikita mo yung fake news na talagang pinapaikot.
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Offline, people are the kind of Filipinos you expect. Sila yung mga Pilipino na may respeto sa kapwa, nakikinig at nakikipag-usap kahit hindi sila kasundo doon sa politika,” said Hilbay,
Hilbay said Facebook should take more responsibility in regulating its content “especially it’s being used to undermine our democracy and we’ve seen that all over the world.”
source: politics.com.ph
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