Solon fears proliferation of fake FB accounts ‘prelude to crackdown’ » Manila Bulletin News
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By Charissa Luci-Atienza
House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said on Sunday (June 7) that the creation of fake Facebook (FB) accounts of activists and university students may be a “prelude to a crackdown” once the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 is enacted into law.
Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate
(Bayan Muna Partylist / FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN)
The Makabayan lawmaker said fake accounts of targeted activists “sprouted” when the campaign against the terror bill came to media attention, while other accounts were created during the campaign against the ABS-CBN shutdown a month ago.
“This is online ‘tanim ebidensya’ (planting evidence) and identity theft if this persists. If the proposed terror bill is enacted into law, real name owners of these fake accounts can be easily sent to jail for being framed by such means,” he said in a statement.
He noted that even activists with no FB accounts now have five or more poser accounts.
“Are troll farms now harvesting names on online petitions so that their bots would not be detected and then use these fake accounts to spread fake news and get the real name owner into trouble?” Zarate asked.
“Are these deliberate manufacture of numerous fake activist poser accounts prelude to a crackdown, especially once the terror bill becomes a law?”
He said the existence of numerous fake Facebook accounts targeting activists and students of state universities should be immediately looked into, even as he asked Facebook to take action against all the fake accounts.
“This is another reason to junk the terror bill because it would easily haul innocent people to jail being framed by unscrupulous groups and individuals. An investigation should also be done on this matter and Facebook should immediately shut down these fake accounts,” Zarate said.
In a statement, Kabataan Party-list called on the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) “to immediately look into these cases of cyber attacks and cyber identity theft.”
“This is nothing but a systematic and organized cyberattack on people exercising their freedom of speech and expression, clearly intended to sow fear,” it said, alarmed by the creation of multiple Facebook accounts of individuals.
“As the Filipino people and the youth stand united against the Terror Bill, multiple duplicate accounts were created, some even sending threats to their namesakes,” it said.
It said since President Duterte was elected in 2016, cyber attacks, trolls and the proliferation of fake news have been weaponized to attack the opposition as well as ordinary critics and dissenters of the administration.
“We condemn these cyber attacks against the people amid the pandemic and lockdown, especially when the primary platform of the people to convey their dissent and calls is through social media,” the party-list group said.
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