{"id":205128,"date":"2019-03-04T21:16:33","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T02:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=205128"},"modified":"2019-03-04T21:16:33","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T02:16:33","slug":"duterte-critics-could-be-making-fake-accounts-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/03\/04\/duterte-critics-could-be-making-fake-accounts-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte critics could be making fake accounts: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo holds a press briefing for the Malaca\u00f1ang Press Corps (MPC) on Monday, November 26, 2018, at the New Executive Building (NEB) in Malaca\u00f1ang. (Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday dismissed the remark made by Marites Vitug, editor-at-large of online news site Rappler, claiming that \u201cfake\u201d social media accounts are behind continuous attacks against them.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo described Vitug\u2019s claim as \u201cfake news\u201d noting that she failed to present proof that government is really paying people to create these accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe may have verified it as a fake account but does she have proof that the government is paying to create that account?\u201d Panelo told PNA in a text message.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be that it\u2019s the detractors of PRRD creating those fake accounts and then point to the government as the source of those fake accounts. Very convenient for them to do that, don\u2019t you think so?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Vitug, in a recent interview with NHK World Japan, said that Rappler has been receiving threats from \u201cfake accounts\u201d on social media and suspected these were being funded by government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threats (Rappler receives) come from online, social media, and fake accounts. Rappler was able to trace some of these accounts and they\u2019re fake. And the suspicion is they are funded by government,\u201d Vitug said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President of the Philippines is autocratic, he\u2019s intolerant of criticism from the media and also from his opponents. So, he uses state agencies to go against independent media,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Panelo pointed out that Vitug is a \u201cknown Duterte detractor\u201d and supporter of Duterte\u2019s staunch critics including detained Senator Leila de Lima and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.<\/p>\n

Last year, Trillanes claimed that the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) was using part of its budget to finance administration trolls on social media.<\/p>\n

PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar has repeatedly denied employing a keyboard army to attack the President\u2019s critics.<\/p>\n

Last month, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa was arrested over cyber libel charges filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng after he was named as the owner of a sports utility vehicle used by the late Chief Justice Renato Corona in the article titled, “CJ using SUVs of ‘controversial’ businessmen\u201d published on its website.<\/p>\n

Critics described Ressa\u2019s arrest as an attack against press freedom.<\/p>\n

However, Palace cited her violation of the country’s laws, noting that rule of law was followed in her arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday dismissed the remark made by Marites Vitug, editor-at-large of online news site Rappler, claiming that \u201cfake\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":191167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}