AFP wants Facebook to release info on pages with ‘military links’

FILE: Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Spokesperson, Marine Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo during the press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on Monday (May 6, 2019). (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)

MANILA – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Friday called on social networking firm Facebook to release information on the number of pages allegedly having links with the military that were included in the massive takedown of accounts or pages due to “coordinated inauthentic behavior”.

“We want to know from Facebook because ‘blanket’ they told us that they took down an ‘X’ number of accounts that has links or linkages with the Philippine military. We want to know what exactly are these accounts, how many of them have connections with the AFP,” AFP spokesperson, Marine Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said in a Laging Handa briefing.

Arevalo said this is to remove doubts from the minds of some people that the AFP is engaged in fake news or using fake accounts.

He said all of the official Facebook accounts or pages managed by the AFP are still up and running.

He also added that the Facebook Philippine Policy Team should elaborate on what “coordinated inauthentic behavior” as it was not explained during a virtual courtesy call with AFP chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay and some select staff members last September 23.

Earlier, Arevalo said the engagement was highlighted by a presentation as to Facebook’s Policy Rationale and what other things they do through their platform.

“We are pleased to know that we have similar advocacies with Facebook, among them the fight against drug trafficking; child exploitation; and counter-terrorism,” he added in a statement forwarded to reporters shortly after the event Wednesday.