Raps await ‘fake news’ peddlers on Covid-19: PNP

Violation of the Republic Act (RA) 10175 of the Anti-Cybercrime Law will be filed against those people spreading fake news. (File Photo by Christoph Scholz/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

MANILA – The Philippine National Police (PNP) urged netizens to be wary of posting and sharing information in their respective social media accounts amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) threat in the country in order to avoid being charged for violation of cybercrime laws.

“Muli ang lahat po ay maging responsable sa paggamit ng social media [Again, we remind everyone to be responsible in using social media],” PNP spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said in a Laging Handa briefing Wednesday.

He said sharing false information amid the public health emergency situation only creates undue fear and panic among the public.

Violation of the Republic Act (RA) 10175 of the Anti-Cybercrime Law will be filed against those people spreading fake news.

The PNP has earlier created a task force against fake news online about Covid-19 which aims to run after fake news peddlers.

He added that the PNP will conduct cyber patrols through monitoring social media platforms.

The PNP-Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) are part of the task group, Banac said.

“(Ito ay) para sa pagsasampa ng kaso laban sa mapapatunayan naging source at nagpapakalat ng fake news na ito [They were included to file charges against those proven as source and are spreading fake news],” he added.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, PNP deputy chief for operations, said the creation of Task Force Covid Kontra Peke in coordination with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) would track down those spreading fake news and people selling fake and hoarded goods and products online.

“So hahanapin po natin [So we will track them down]. We will find these fake news peddlers sowing disinformation,” said Eleazar, who is also the commander of the Joint Task Force Corona Virus (JTF CV) Shield.

The JTF CV Shield is the implementing arm of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).