Ferro: No PRO-7-affiliated accounts removed by FB

Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) chief Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The top honcho of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas has assured that there are no accounts affiliated with PRO-7 that has been taken down by Facebook, which it considers as fake accounts.

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, PRO-7 director, made this assurance following reports that Facebook had removed more than 100 fake accounts allegedly linked to the Philippine police and military.

Read: Over 100 fake accounts traced to PH police, military shut down by Facebook

According to the reports, Facebook removed these accounts after they were found to have engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” (CIB), a violation of the social media giant’s community standards.

Ferro said in a press briefing this Friday, September 25, that he had not received any information or report that there were accounts affiliated with PRO-7 that were taken down.

“I believe we were not included in those that have been identified, and we will try to investigate what happened to those FB accounts that have been removed from the web of Facebook. Here in Central Visayas so far, I was not informed whether authorized Facebook account of PNP or Armed Forces were affected,” said Ferro.

Read: AFP, PNP disown pro-Duterte accounts shut down by Facebook

According to Ferro, he did not receive yet the actual facts of what have happened in relation to the removal of these Facebook accounts, but he said that there may be a proper explanation from the parties which were said to be involved in the issue.

“We should welcome the investigation so the fair and just delivery of information and issue be weighed properly (and) so everybody would have a chance to speak out,” said Ferro./dbs

Read: Facebook warns those making fake accounts: We’ll keep taking you down