NBI urged to probe 鈥榬ed-tagging鈥� of Makabayan bets
House Deputy Minority leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro — PHOTO FROM HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MANILA, Philippines — House Deputy Minority leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro has requested the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe the social media “red-tagging” and purported circulation of false content about her and other Makabayan senatorial candidates.
In a letter she sent to the NBI on Thursday, Castro reported a pro-Duterte account claiming that she had died from a heart attack “upon learning of the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.”
She said this account could no longer be searched and had already been fact-checked by a media organization.
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“This video used edited photos, a misleading thumbnail, and utterly false claims to portray in a bad light myself and the legitimate issues for which I advocate, i.e., transparency over confidential funds and the Vice President’s accountability for them,” Castro said.
Castro also said the channel or video could no longer be searched, and it could have been taken down. However, she said the NBI should still look into this account and coordinate with YouTube and Google as to the links of the video and channel.
She also referred Makabayan’s request addressed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to the NBI.
“In particular, we referred to the attention of the Comelec an impersonation account creating and disseminating AI-generated and red-tagging videos through Facebook and essentially urging the public not to vote for progressive candidates under the Makabayan,” Castro wrote.
“However, we at the Makabayan wish to stress that any investigation and all related actions thereto should strictly comply with the requirements of due process and should neither impair nor undermine free speech and other democratic rights of users and consumers of online content,” she added.”
“We believe that spreaders of red-tagging and false information online only get more vile and damaging to the public with every second that they are allowed to exist on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms unchecked. We therefore hope for your immediate and favorable consideration of our requests,” the lawmaker also said.
Last week, Castro demanded Meta to restore her Facebook pages after the company unpublished them and restricted the personal accounts of the pages’ administrators.
Castro said her first official Facebook page was unpublished last February 16, while the second was unpublished on March 15. She called these acts “a form of digital censorship and an attack on freedom of expression.”
“This is a clear case of digital harassment and censorship. Meta is systematically silencing progressive voices that speak truth to power,” she added.
