MANILA, Philippines — The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) on Wednesday denounced social media giant Facebook for taking down posts that criticize the alleged compromise deal between the Duterte administration and the family of late President Ferdinand Marcos.
“The NUJP condemns Facebook’s baseless takedown of netizens’ posts critical of the government and institutions, as it is a direct infringement on the users’ right to freedom of expression,” NUJP said in a statement.
“We call out Facebook for its arbitrary “community standards,” which is often used as a basis for expurgating critical and thought-provoking commentaries,” it added.
NUJP’s statement came after Facebook took down on Tuesday the post of blogger-columnist Tonyo Cruz in reaction to the takedown of a viral post calling out the alleged compromise deal between the government and the Marcos family.
“Tonyo Cruz, who writes a biweekly column for the Manila Bulletin, received past 8 p.m. a notice from Facebook that it has taken down his post entitled “Community Standards ng mga Kawatan,” it also said.
The NUJP also urged Facebook to review its guidelines to ensure that it will not violate the people’s right to freely express themselves.
The post of Cruz denounced the takedown of the post of host and educator Gang Badoy, which contains photos of the alleged draft of the said agreement.
The host’s post was taken down by Facebook Tuesday morning for “violating community standards” but was restored at past 1 p.m.
The social media giant apologized for “accidentally removing” the content.
Hours later, however, Cruz’s post was taken down as well.
“Facebook has also prevented me from posting on its website and from accessing my Messenger account. The official reason they gave is that I violated ‘community standards,” Cruz said in a statement sent to the NUJP.
“I can still log in but I cannot post, comment or send a message for the same reason — ‘violation of community standards,’” he added.
Meanwhile, Badoy’s post prompted a reaction from Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque denying the alleged deal, however, confirmed the Palace had received a copy of it.
“There is no truth to the allegation that the government has reached a compromise agreement with the family of the late President Ferdinand Marcos,” Roque said.
It can be recalled that Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo said his office had received the proposal from lawyer Oliver Lozano who is known to be a Marcos loyalist.
The camp of former Senator Bongbong Marcos distanced themselves from Lozano, denying having a hand in the supposed compromise deal to settle their family’s alleged ill-gotten wealth sequestered by the government.