The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that they are already collaborating with various social media platforms to verify candidates’ accounts.
After the commission issued guidelines, only platform-verified accounts will be allowed to post political advertisements.
“Yes, we are working with Facebook and Twitter and with, of course, Google, which is the parent company [of] YouTube… We think that it would provide the public a trusted, credible source of information when we have this sort of verification,” said Comelec spokesman James Jimenez.
The Comelec also responded to the criticism by saying that the rule regarding verified accounts is unconstitutional.
“I’d like to point out that the platform has, in fact, waived the requirement several times already and there’s no reason to expect that they will not do it again, especially since we are working with them to ensure that official candidates have access to these platforms,” said Jimenez.
But Jimenez admitted that even if social media accounts are verified, they can still spread fake news or untrue information.
For presidential aspirant Ping Lacson, this step by the Comelec is right.
Comelec defends required ‘verified’ pages of candidates
“The use of social media platforms has almost become the qualifying barometer in educating, but ironically, also disinforming to the point of deceiving our people,” he said.
Early this month, Google announced it would stop carrying election ads in the Philippines ahead of the May 2022 elections.
“Google is focusing its efforts and resources on upcoming election-related initiatives which aim to help people access useful and accurate information via product features and media literacy programmes, encourage participation in the voting process, and help protect the integrity of the elections,” it said in a statement.
Google had previously halted paid political ads in the United States in part to prevent the spread of hoaxes and misinformation during the 2020 US election.
The campaign period for the national posts begins February 8, 2022, and will last until May 7, 2022. For local posts candidates, the campaign period will be from March 25, 2022, to May 7, 2022.
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