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At the same hearing, Marcos’ communications chief also pushes to regulate social media platforms and hold them accountable for false information hosted on their sites
MANILA, Philippines – Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda told the House of Representatives that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, had agreed to lower the reach of posts identified by the Philippine government as false.
“They are now agreeing that when the CICC (Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center), the PCO (Presidential Communications Office), or any duly authorized government authority sends them something that says, ‘This is fake news,’ they will demote it in their feeds,” Aguda said in Filipino during the House tri-committee’s fifth and final day of inquiry into online disinformation on Thursday, June 5.
During the hearing, PCO Secretary Jay Ruiz shared an instance wherein Meta rejected his office’s request, coursed through the DICT’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center, to take down a fake memo purportedly issued by the Office of the Executive Secretary, citing freedom of expression.
“So what is this — are we at the mercy of the platforms? Why is it like that, I’m already with the PCO?” Ruiz said. “I had my certification from the CICC of the DICT, and yet they still wouldn’t take it down.”
Meta was not present during the hearing, but a representative from the multinational tech company said during the fourth hearing in April that posts labeled by third-party fact-checkers as false were subjected to reduced distribution.
The House tri-committee hearings have walked a fine line between accountability and censorship.
It saw House lawmakers, mostly allied with the Marcos administration, confront Duterte-linked bloggers for spreading disinformation. However, congressmen also toyed with the idea of media regulation, which some watchdogs warned could be dangerous.
Regulating social media platforms, requiring franchise?
On Thursday, though, there was larger talk on how to hold social media giants to account.
Ruiz said that the community standards crafted by social media platforms should come from the government, not from the companies.
“It should be the platform itself that cleans up what appears on their social media platforms. They are the ones responsible. Otherwise, the penalties should be imposed on the platform, not on the individual,” Ruiz added.
Surigao del Sur 2nd District Representative Johnny Pimentel also wants Congress to study the possibility of requiring Meta to get a franchise in order to operate here in the Philippines.
“Because Congress has an oversight committee, we can regulate them. The problem with Meta is, all they care about is their profit,” Pimentel said.
Roman’s proposal
Bataan 1st District Representative Geraldine Roman filed earlier this week a bill seeking to recognize the Digital Media Standards Coalition as an independent fact-checking and ethical guidance authority.
The DMSC is a legally registered, independent group of content creators, digital advertising and PR firms, fact-checkers, media institutions, academics, and civil society stakeholders.
If passed into law, social media platforms would be required to maintain a permanent representative office in the Philippines, adhere to the directives of DMSC, consult the group for escalated content disputes, and provide access to data for technical audits.
As the 19th Congress is set to adjourn for good next week, all efforts to pass legislation to counter the spread of online disinformation will have to wait until the next Congress. – Rappler.com
