The social platform, Facebook, has announced Tuesday that over 100 accounts and pages were removed due to misinformation and “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Several of these accounts and pages were linked to the military and police one of which was traced to a Philippine Army personnel who was identified as an operator of an account containing fake news.
According to the US-based digital forensic research lab, one of the accounts taken down belong to Captain Alexandre Cabales. He is the chief of the social media center of the army and manages Kalinaw News.
Cabales is also affiliated with the Hands Off our Children Facebook account which has also been removed by the platform.
Philippine Army Spokesperson Colonel Ramon Zagala revealed that they have a 70% trust rating. That is why they are cautious in releasing the right information to the public.
“We are very careful and we always remind our personnel that they should act according to the norms of standard in the Philippine Army.”
According to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Spokesperson Major General Edgard Arevalo, currently, there is no basis to say that Cabales has committed a violation but the military will investigate the matter.
Col. Zagala disclosed that they have talked with Cabales who denied posting any misinformation. However, if Cabales will be found to have spread misinformation and violated social media protocol, he may face penalty. For now, Cabales will be asked to explain.
The army intends to coordinate with Facebook to know the violation of its personnel.
“By simply telling us na behavior, that’s your policy. Policy ‘yan ng Facebook. You have to tell us what content he put out there that warranted this take down,” the PA Spokesperson said.
The AFP has met with Facebook Philippines on Wednesday and discussed their coordination on countering terrorism and other types of crimes.
AFP Chief of Staff General Gilbert Gapay asked to return the pages of Hands Off our Children and other accounts and pages. However, Facebook stated that it does not have any policies on returning accounts and pages that have been taken down.
For its part, the Philippine National Police (PNP) assured that it is constantly complying with the social media etiquette and behavior.
PNP Chief General Camilo Cascolan pointed out that they do not acknowledge opinions of individuals not coordinated with official activities of the police.
“The PNP continues to adhere to the institutional policy which observes cyber etiquette and proper decorum in social media.” – Report from Bea Bernardo
