Fact checkers

A threat and a call to action by diehard fanatics of President Rodrigo Duterte on their Facebook followers to boycott the social media site and transfer to a Russian social media site would have been laughable to a lot of people and undeserving of public attention to some were it not for the official response of the Palace’s communications arm to the issue.

“We would also like to register our protest at the choice of fact-checkers by Facebook and this will be on the agenda when we finally get to sit with them soon,” Undersecretary for New Media Lorraine Badoy said.

Facebook’s choice of fact-checkers were Vera Files and the online news site Rappler and it is well known by now that Rappler has earned President

Rodrigo Duterte’s ire over, among other things, its report on the alleged intervention made by his special assistant and looming senatorial aspirant Bong Go on the P15.5-billion warship deal.

That and the Palace ban on one of Rappler’s reporters which it justified by pointing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decision to revoke Rappler’s business registration over its alleged foreign ownership makes it clear that the government considers the online news site an unwelcome entity.

We trust that both Vera Files and Rappler can speak for themselves when it comes to this issue and the bigger concern lies in what the Palace will do if Facebook insists on retaining both of them as fact-checkers on its news feed.

With President Duterte deciding unilaterally to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC) even without consultations with the Senate what’s to stop him from declaring a ban on Facebook if the social media site stands by its decision on Vera Files and Rappler?

That possibility may seem remote and ludicrous to some, owing to Facebook’s continuing popularity with Filipino netizens who may chafe and even view with suspicion the call by the President’s followers to transfer to a Russian social media site given reports of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections.

But with Facebook facing mounting pressure from the US Congress for failing to stop the farming of its users data in the US for the Trump campaign team how would it deal with the Palace objection without sacrificing its commitment to block and delete fake news?

There may be no easy solution in sight for now but the Palace simply cannot deny the fact that its top occupant benefited from using Facebook as a campaign tool to ascend to the presidency while his diehard loyalists continually used it to threaten political enemies and critics into submission.

As netizens, it is to our interest to monitor these developments and make our voices heard loud and clear lest the government does the unthinkable.