(Eagle News) –The Palace on Wednesday, Feb. 13, questioned anew Facebook’s choice of Rappler as its third party fact-checker.
In a statement issued after Rappler’s chief executive officer and executive editor Maria Ressa was arrested for cyberlibel, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Palace found it “ironic” that Facebook, which he said has “transformed into a platform where netizens exercise their right to free speech” and has “resolve in combating disinformation, misinformation and all kinds of false or fake news,” chose an outfit that “has a reputation of being predisposed against majority, if not all, of the policies of this administration as can be easily gleaned through the form of its published articles.”
“We respond to serious concerns raised by several groups regarding Facebook’s decision…We just hope the (third party fact checker program) being pursued by Facebook will not evolve into a tool which censors the good news arising out of the programs of this administration,” Panelo said.
According to Panelo, though, “as the ultimate audience, our people have become more knowledgeable and more discerning in reading and analyzing the news.”
“They too have become more critical against those licensed media companies which resort to negative propaganda and biased and distorted stories. As such, we leave the matter to the netizens in determining which online media outlet they wish to patronize or believe in,” Panelo said.