(Eagle News)– President Rodrigo Duterte, like other candidates then, took advantage of the social networking site Facebook to promote his presidential campaign.
But Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the President did not promote fake news on FB to win votes, contrary to what an MSNBC report says.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber said in the report that Facebook had deployed three of its employees to the Philippines to hold training sessions with campaign teams such as Duterte’s.
“But giving tips to a few campaigns in a constitutional democracy can be different from giving tips to this authoritarian, Duterte. And Facebook learned that quickly. In fact, after his team got that Facebook briefing, his allies went into overdrive pushing fake news and accounts, along with his wider campaigns,” Melber said.
“The technology exists and it would have been foolhardy for any political candidate not to tap Facebook as a campaign tool. All candidates did so,” Roque said.
He said Duterte “appeared to have been the best candidate who utilized Facebook the most.”