Cordi youth group urges Facebook: Act on 'smear campaign' vs activists

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS protest along the streets of Baguio City for the National Coordinated Action for Education and Democracy recently.

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The Baguio-Benguet chapter of a youth activist alliance is urging Facebook to take action against content that they say has endangered the lives of its members for months.

In a letter addressed to the social networking site, the Youth Act Now Against Tyranny (YANAT) Baguio-Benguet Chapter reported being on the receiving end of what it called a smear campaign on social media by anonymous "trolls" and by the police.

"We are writing this letter to officially report cases of online smear campaign, 'fake news attacks' harassment and threats that various organizations in the Cordillera Region, Philippines, have been receiving for the past two months, amid the pandemic," the letter read. 

"These are peddled by newly-created 'fake' Facebook accounts which can easily be identified through their fictitious names and over-all content. We are very much aware that all the above-mentioned online attacks against any individual or organization run counter to Facebook’s Community Standards," it added. 

The letter was made public days after arrested protesters from the University of the Philippines Cebu also discovered blank accounts bearing their names on Facebook. Since then, reports of the same have swept over social media and have come to include non-student advocates in Metro Manila. 

Even the country's national police has acknowledged that the dummy accounts could be used to peddle misinformation "and other nefarious activities." 

At the same time, though, the Philippine National Police's own channels—along with those of other government agencies—have also posted content vilifying activists and tagging them as communist rebels, which the youth group also pointed to in its letter to Facebook. 

Though various lawmakers have promised that the very anti-terror bill being protested would not be used to clamp down on critics, activists, and militants, the practice of red-tagging has been the norm for some time. 

Philippine jurisprudence defines the act as "accusing individuals of being subversives [used as a] strategy...by state against against those perceived to be ‘threats’ or ‘enemies’ of the state."

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), for instance, has been caught on multiple occasions peddling misinformation against activists and journalists critical of the administration and accusing militant groups of being legal fronts for communist rebels.

"These are done through the careless linking of various legal and legitimate organizations and individuals in rebels and armed groups such as the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and New People’s Army (NPA) that are considered 'enemies of the state' in the Philippines," YANAT said in the letter.

The letter went on to point to content from the national police itself and linked to posts by the Police Regional Office-Cordillera page on Facebook from as far back as April. 

One post read in Filipino: "Do not participate in left-leaning online orientation activities. It is a way of deceiving people, especially young people."

The same post accuses the group of having a "boss" in the Netherlands, while posts from other PNP-linked accounts include the black flag used by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The faces of some activists are included in the images.