Solons: Facebook’s lack of PH office makes it hard to address fake news

MANILA, Philippines — House of Representatives lawmakers have called out Facebook representatives for not having an office in the country, which they believe makes it hard for local authorities to address misinformation and other issues on social media.

During the tri-committee hearing on Tuesday, both 1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez and Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop told Facebook and Meta Platforms officials who were present that the lack of a Philippine office hinders legal accountability.

According to Gutierrez, they appreciate the cooperation made by Facebook, but the lack of an office weakens the effectiveness of existing protocols.

“We appreciate the responsiveness of Facebook Singapore and Meta Platforms, it doesn’t skirt the issue for us that there is no baseline legal responsibility within the Philippines, there is no Meta-affiliated entity within the Philippines, and that’s what I believe makes it hard,” Gutierrez said.

Effective guidelines

“While we do appreciate that you have the guidelines and protocols in place, it doesn’t seem to be all that effective,” he added.

Acop, meanwhile, said that the fact that Facebook Philippines does not handle content regulation also makes it difficult for Filipinos to “seek timely and effective recourse when harm occurs online.”

“The absence of a clearly accountable and empowered Meta entity here in the Philippines is a crucial issue.  And I hope the Meta people will agree with that.  As we’ve heard, Facebook Philippines does not control the platform, nor does it handle content regulation or policy enforcement,” Acop explained.

“This makes it difficult for Filipinos to seek timely and effective recourse when harm occurs online.  That is why we are exploring the idea of requiring accreditation or registration of our social media platforms operating in this country to ensure that there is a readily accessible, responsible point of contact that understands and complies with our laws,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gutierrez noted that Facebook gave them the run-around when they were complaining about problems.

“We do appreciate all the efforts that you’ve done above and beyond the legal requirements that we may have […] however I hope you understand that what makes it very difficult for us is that when we have problems, it’s very hard to reach Meta Platforms Inc., so understand that we are of the position that if we have any problem that we have to relay, we have to go through Facebook Philippines,” he said.

“But as you can see from our previous hearings, they’ve been tossing us around left and right.  We went to Facebook Philippines, they told us to coordinate. They have no involvement with Meta […] we go to Meta, and they say we’re an American company we won’t be going there.  Unlike media which would operate specifically within a country, we’re talking about a foreign entity that would now be in the business not just of public expression but also the commercial side of it,” he added.

Measures in place

During the discussions, Facebook director for Southeast Asia policy Rafael Frankel said that there are measures in place to ensure that possible false information on their platform would be checked.

However, Frankel said they are being very careful about discussing misinformation and disinformation, as these can be interpreted differently.

“In the United States only, we have moved to a system of community notes, as opposed to our third-party fact checking system. But everywhere else around the globe, the third-party fact-checking system is the system we still use.

“I wanna say that when we come to topics like misinformation, there are different interpretations of that.  And this is why we rely on third-party fact-checkers to be the authoritative sources of what is true or false, and to make those determinations so that we as a neutral platform […] are not ones making the determination to what is true or false,” he added.

The tri-committee has been tasked to probe the spread of disinformation online after several resolutions were filed and different privilege speeches about the matter were delivered.

READ: AFP disables features on its Facebook page to protect it against trolls

Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers was one of the lawmakers who delivered a privilege speech after different fake rumors were spreading about him and the other chairpersons of the House’s quad committee.

Illegal activities

During that time, the quad committee was probing illegal activities in Philippine offshore gaming operators, the illicit drug trade, and extrajudicial killings in the past administration’s drug war.

Different studies have shown that Filipinos, one of the more prevalent social media and internet users across the globe, are susceptible to misinformation and disinformation.

Last May 2024, lawmakers urged the public to exercise discretion amid the spread of videos where President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s voice is being mimicked to announce that the Philippines is getting ready for war against China.  The videos have been shared on Facebook and other social media platforms.

READ: PCO disowns clip of Marcos ‘attack order’ vs China

The PCO has already disowned the video, saying that the video was made to sound like the President — stressing that Marcos has not made such an order to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

(2025/04/08-15:28)