The chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday said he informed Congress that all 1, 585 social media pages and networking sites under their organization remain and operatiing after Facebook deleted around 57 pages and accounts allegedly linked to police and military.

Police General Camilo Cascolan said this during the House of Representatives’ budget hearing last week.

“I also informed Congress that as far the PNP is concerned, all 1,585 social media pages and networking sites (as of October 4, 2020) officially owned and maintained by PNP units and offices remain up and operational, although many of which are not actively engaging with netizens,” Cascolan said.

Cascolan said all the sites are monitored by the National Headquarters and PNP units maintain these social networking sites.

“(These accounts) are constantly reminded to strictly observe PNP rules on social media use, and cautioned against libelous posts and content that may trigger cyber-bullying, and those that infringe on civil rights that protect data privacy, intellectual property and confidentiality of information,” he said.

Cascolan said he also expressed to the members of the Congress their commitment to strictly observe prescribed guidelines and procedures in all public engagements, particularly through social networking sites and social media platforms.

“I assured our Honorable Congressmen that disciplinary sanctions shall be imposed upon any PNP members who willfully violate the rules and regulations embodied in the PNP Social Media Policy,” Cascolan said.

Cascolan said he told lawmakers of the actions they undertake in response to the issue with Facebook.

“I told Congress that we have communicated with Facebook seeking a list of purported PNP-linked accounts that were shut down due to alleged ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’,” he said.

“Incidentally, in response to our concern, we received a reply from Mr. Rob Abrams, Trust and Safety Manager for Asia Pacific of Facebook Singapore, acknowledging our correspondence with implied assurance of availability of the requested information upon compliance of certain internal requisites,” he added.

Cascolan said they have yet to hear from Facebook again since then but they are confident of their favorable response to their request.

In a statement, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año expressed concern on the deletion of accounts that were allegedly linked to the military and police establishments for violating its policy.

“It was done without prior consultation nor was the administrators of these accounts afforded due process. These pages were private accounts and must enjoy the guarantee of free speech on major issues of social concern under the Philippine Constitution and Philippine laws,” Año said.

“We are also concerned with Facebook’s sense of fairness. For example, while it has actively deleted alleged fake pages linked to the military and police, it has surprisingly failed to root out the bots, or automated accounts, that are being maintained by political and armed groups that are actively seeking to overthrow duly constituted authority in the country,” he said.

He questioned Facebook for deleting alleged pro-government pages while allowing unfettered access to hate speech spreaders and purveyors of fake news from Communist Terrorist Groups (CTGs).

“We, therefore, urge Facebook officials to hold talks with government counterparts to address the issue, roll back changes, and restore the Facebook pages in question, whenever possible, because recent developments highlights the need for the social media company and government to dialogue to clarify and improve the former’s policies in accordance with Philippine laws,” Año said.

He said such action would reinforce what Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has been saying that the social media site is a marketplace of ideas that brings people together “so they can then share information and ideas about the things that they’re passionate about.”

Facebook has deleted a total of 57 Facebook accounts, 31 pages, and 20 Instagram accounts originating in the Philippines for violating the social media network’s policy. Ella Dionisio/DMS