There should be a “more partial arbiter of truth,” Roque says
(Eagle News) — The Palace on Monday, April 16, cried foul over Facebook’s choice of Rappler and Vera Files as fact-checkers tasked to weed out fake news and misleading content in the platform.
According to Roque, there should be a “more partial arbiter of truth” that will review stories on Facebook that have been flagged as dubious.
In January, the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler’s certificate of registration after it found it “acted with deceit in a scheme to justify the grant of control and also financial returns, to foreign investors when they sold the Omidyar Network Philippine Depositary Receipts.”
According to the SEC, Rappler in essence violated the foreign equity restriction enshrined in the Constitution.
The provision bars any form of ownership or control by foreign entities of Philippine mass media.
The ruling has been appealed by Rappler.
Vera Files has also been accused of publishing articles that lean toward the opposition and are very critical of the administration.
Earlier, the Palace challenged the media outlet to prove its claim that President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, did not disclose P100 million worth of assets in their Statements of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth.
“There are those who are complaining who said that the chosen ‘police of truth,’ so to speak, are sometimes partisan themselves. That is the problem with truth. It can be subjective depending on your political perspective,” Roque said.
He said Facebook users should “make known their wishes to Facebook itself, that there should be a more partial arbiter of the truth.”
“The possibility of shifting is always there. Of course, there’s the worldwide movement to delete Facebook not just because of their moves in the Philippines, but because also of privacy concerns,” Roque said.
Facebook has come under fire after it was found data of 87 million Facebook users was used by British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica without their consent.
The Philippines had the second most number of accounts allegedly accessed by the firm, after the United States.