The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is alarmed by proposals by the Presidential Communications Office and the Department of Information and Communications Technology for government to declare certain content “fake news”.

Officials made these pronouncements at a House hearing, the latest in a series of inquiries that has tended towards punishment for views contrary to the government’s.
We recognize the threat that disinformation poses on discourse and on democracy, but we have also seen how the charge of “fake news” has been weaponized in the previous administration and in the present one.

We advise caution as well as proposals to have social media platforms apply for franchises, given how politically charged that process can be and has been. A robust freedom of information policy, transparency from government, and an emphasis on critical thinking and media and information literacy would do more against “fake news” than allowing the bureaucracy to decide what is fake and what isn’t.

In the spirit of self-regulation, we also call on social media platforms to ramp up enforcement of community standards, support third-party fact-checkers and to be more responsive to user reports of harmful content.

We also reiterate a call by disinformation researchers from nearly half a decade ago for a civil society-led effort to find and expose disinformation networks and their clients.

Reference:
National Directorate | +639602784263