Dispatch from Crame No. 920:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on the Shut Down of Duterte-China Fake Accounts by Facebook

9/24/20

Hindi na ako nagulat na nagkalat na naman ang mga pekeng account at pro-Duterte Facebook page na mga basura ang laman. Dahil kaya naman tatay ang tawag kay Duterte, ay dahil siya ang bumubuhay sa mga pakawalang tiyanak at maligno diyan sa social media!

Alam natin na kumukubra ng bayad sa gobyerno itong mga pekeng Duterte accounts and pages. Hindi malayo na ang palaki nang palaking intel fund ni Duterte ay pambayad sa mga ito, lalo pa't papalapit ang eleksyon.

But what the recent Facebook shut down of Duterte camp's fake accounts and pages proves is that the Davao group is now operating, not just a troll farm, but a troll pigsty for the 2022 presidential election. Mukhang may binubuo na naman silang maitim na balak!

I welcome this preventive measure of Facebook to dismantle and double down on these Rodrigo Duterte-Sara Duterte fake accounts and pages as the election year nears and while there is a pandemic.

We cannot simply forget that Facebook's security and privacy issues had also compromised our national election in 2016. To redress this, Facebook has to look out for the same template Duterte used in 2016 which the Davao-China group is now replicating in Sara Duterte for the 2022 election.

I hope Facebook will do a constant sanitation and clearing up of its ginormous cyber-space of all Duterte-China social media parasites and must henceforth never again allow its platform to become a factory of coordinated lies and disinformation as it strives towards more accountability and transparency. ###

Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 920, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_no._920