Senator Francis Pangillinan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said he wants the officers of social media giant Facebook to attend Senate hearings to explain to the public how they are curbing the proliferation of fake news in their platform.
鈥淔acebook acknowledged that it knows people want accurate information. We are interested in finding out how Facebook is doing it because the platform as it is now is still being abused by perpetrators of fake news,鈥� Pangilinan said in a statement last Friday.
READ: Pangilinan seeks penalty vs social media for spread of fake news
Last week, Pangilinan filed a Senate resolution seeking to conduct a probe on how Facebook can be penalized for supposedly 鈥渘ot being able to regulate fake news on its site and to determine the necessity of amending the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 and other pertinent laws.
Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party, said the propagation of fake news stories has become an 鈥渆ffective weapon of several political operatives to influence public opinion and national discourse.鈥�
In response to Pangilinan, Facebook said they 鈥渢ake misinformation seriously鈥� and have been working to combat fake news for a long time now.
Facebook, in a statement to the media, responded that it has been working on to fight fake news for a long time and admitted that it still has more work to do.
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Noting social media鈥檚 role in democracy, Pangilinan said he was hoping that Facebook would take the lead in 鈥渉elping the public in discerning truth from lies and fabrication that are being spread massively to influence public opinion and national discourse.鈥�
鈥淔acebook鈥檚 role in this digital age has become very crucial in the practice of democracy as it moved from a social networking site to a media company,鈥� the senator said.
鈥淲e wish to understand Facebook鈥檚 standards and mechanisms in identifying violators on its platform. In so doing, the public will be informed which information to trust and where to get them from,鈥� he added. RAM/rga