MALACAÑANG on Monday, April 16, opposed Facebook's decision to tap news outlets Rappler and Vera Files for a third-party fact-checking program in an effort to stamp out the proliferation of fake news among Filipino users of the social media platform.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said Facebook's move to partner with the two local media entities was the social media giant's own "solution" to counter the spread of false information.
He lamented that the "chosen police of the truth," referring to Rappler and Vera Files, were "sometimes partisan themselves."
"There are those who are complaining that the chosen police of the truth, so to speak, are sometimes partisan themselves. And of course, this is the problem with truth that can be subjective, depending on your political perspective," he told a press conference.
"And that is why I commiserate with those who object to the selection of Rappler and VERA files because we know where they stand in the political spectrum," he added.
Facebook announced on April 12 its partnership with Rappler and Vera Files to fact-check content sharing sites to prevent false news from spreading on the popular social media page.
Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, in a separate statement, said the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) would raise its objection to the choice of fact-checkers by Facebook when it has the chance to meet the social media giant's executives "soon."
"Efforts are underway for both the PCOO and Facebook to sit across the table and discuss and hopefully, reach agreements that will get us closer to our shared goal of responsible and intelligent use of social media," Badoy said.
"And we give our all-out support to them in their efforts to combat the creation and spread of false news that have poisoned our shared space and dumbed down, if not encouraged, vicious discourse in our online community—and that has served no one in any good way," she added.
The social media giant has already begun the implementation of stiffer measures against fake news by blocking several websites that are believed to be peddling fake articles that are in favor of the Duterte administration.
Some websites that purportedly share false information and have so far been banned from being shared on Facebook's news feed were Duterte News Today and Duterte News Info, among others.
The latest move came following Facebook's recent admission that personal information of 1.175 million Filipino users may have been improperly shared with controversial British consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.
The National Privacy Commission has announced its plan to launch an investigation into the reported massive breach of millions of Filipinos' Facebook accounts to look into the possible violations of improper sharing of personal data of affected users in the Philippines.
Following the alleged hacking of personal information of Facebook users, Roque was not discounting the possibility that some Filipinos might consider using alternative social media site.
"The possibility of shifting is always there. Of course, there's a worldwide movement to delete Facebook not just because of their moves in the Philippines but because also of privacy concerns," he said. (SunStar Philippines)