The office of Senator Leila de Lima encouraged Facebook to probe the temporary shutdown of pages of opposition members.
On Thursday, the office of Senator Leila de Lima encouraged Facebook to probe the temporary shutdown of her page as well as pages of opposition members.
In a statement, De Lima’s office said that it has come to their attention that their official page, Leila de Lima Official, had been “inaccessible on desktop and laptop from 12:00 P.M.-1:30 P.M. today”, adding that official pages of other members of the opposition were reportedly shut down as well.
De Lima’s office also stated that they have coordinated with Facebook Philippines on the said matter. Also, De Lima’s office said that they encouraged Facebook to monitor and investigate the said incident, and to make the necessary actions in order to ensure that this will not happen.
De Lima’s office was alarmed over the incident and also expressed hope that what had happened wasn’t an “organized attack”.
“Amid these challenging times, when social media serve as a very significant vehicle to disseminate truthful and useful information to the public, we have witnessed how the Duterte regime and those with sinister motives and selfish interests weaponize paid trolls to curtail truthful reporting, free speech, and critical thinking, and instead propagate disinformation, misinformation, negativism and hate speech,” it said.
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De Lima, one of Duterte administration’s staunchest critics, had been in detention at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame since 2017 over drug-related charges and had repeatedly claimed that the charges were “trumped-up”.
Her office’s statement further stated that the senator had been maligned, jailed, and harassed, and there were even efforts to silence the Facebook page.
In addition, De Lima’s office stated that only those who were cowards — including those being paid — can be the ones behind this. Moreover, De Lima’s office stated that they should just use it to help those in need if they have money to pay trolls against them.
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