Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief General Gilbert Gapay said Tuesday that social media giant Facebook was “unfair” for taking down accounts and pages linked to the police and military.
“They were unfair to us in taking down those sites because there are many sites that are really espousing hate, violence, terrorism that should have been taken down in the first place, not these good sites that we are advocating through Facebook,” Gapay said.
He added Facebook should have been impartial and unbiased in purging accounts and pages due to coordinated inauthentic behavior.
“We are also telling them as a media platform; they should be impartial and unbiased in this. That’s why they cannot just take down accounts because of CIB, although they have policies on this. They should look into the content,” Gapay said.
“We are now asking Facebook if they could advise before they take down or further investigate because CIB alone, without looking into content, may not be enough for good pages to be taken down,” he added.
Gapay said the AFP is coordinating with Facebook’s management regarding the matter. It also appealed to restore the page of The Hands Off Our Children (HOOC), an advocacy page fighting against communist groups from recruiting the youth.
AFP chief: Facebook unfair for taking down pages linked to police, military
The PNP and the AFP already refuted claims that the fake Facebook accounts were connected to the police and military.
President Rodrigo Duterte also questioned Facebook regarding the removal of some accounts linked to the government security forces.
“Facebook, listen to me. We allow you to operate here, hoping that you could help us also. Now, if government cannot espouse or advocate something which is for the good of the people, then what is your purpose here in my country?” Duterte said.
“What would be the point of allowing you to continue if you cannot help us? We are not advocating mass destruction, massacre. It’s a fight of ideas,” he added.