An NBI official said the fake Facebook accounts of individuals, mostly students, that surfaced days after protests against the Anti-Terror bill could be just a glitch.
“Ang tinitingnan pa lang namin ngayon, in all probability, glitch lang ito dahil napakahirap mag-create ng account ngayon sa Facebook, especially kapag madami kang kini-create na account under one ID, one cellphone number, one location,” said NBI Cybercrime Division chief Victor Lorenzo in an interview with TeleRadyo.
(We are looking at, in all probability, this is just a glitch as it is very difficult to create an account today on Facebook, especially when you have multiple accounts created under one ID, one cellphone number, one location.)
“Machine lang naman iyon. Hindi impossible na mangyari na magkaroon ng glitch,” he added.
(That’s just a machine. It’s not impossible to have a glitch.)
He said they are looking at the widespread protests in the United States, where Facebook is based.
The NBI is now also assessing whether the accounts were intentionally created or whether the students were targeted.
Facebook also responded to the NBI’s “glitch” theory in an interview with Philstar.com, saying, “Nothing further to share at this time.”
Yesterday, the Univerisity of the Philippines Office of the Student Regent issued a statement regarding the “empty, duplicate” and “fake accounts” lobbying the name of some UP Cebu students, following the protests against the anti-terrorism bill.
It is now also targeting non-UP students and alumni of the university and is including Metro Manila residents as well. Some have more than 30 imposter accounts.
Also read: Arrest of “Cebu 8” nothing to do with protests- PNP
NBI says fake Facebook accounts just a ‘glitch’
But there is a problem with the NBI’s “glitch” theory. The fake accounts are sending messages and alleged threats to the real owners of Facebook accounts.
Some of these accounts threaten to imprison real owners in connection with Anti-Terror bill, or at least link account owners to communists and the New People’s Army (NPA).
In some cases, the dummy account sends a death threat to the real Facebook owner, something that a simple technical problem could not do.
It was only yesterday when Facebook announced that they were investigating suspicious activity, which violated their policy.
Raymund Liboro, the commissioner of the National Privacy Commission, also commented on the incident.
“While the extent of these incidents are not yet fully determined at this time, we have been receiving reports from different sectors, mostly coming from academic institutions,” said Liboro.