Palace: Nothing wrong on cops’ monitoring of social media posts

September 7, 2020

Malacanang said on Monday there is nothing wrong on the move of the Philippine National Police to monitor social media posts to ensure health and quarantine protocols are being observed by the netizens amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, who is also a lawyer, said the Cybercrime Prevention Law has specified what are prohibited.

"Social media monitoring is not prohibited. So there's nothing wrong if the police will just look on what have been posted on social media," he said in a virtual press briefing.

"So, the monitoring is not illegal. I don't think there's anything wrong with that," Roque added.

Joint Task Force COVID Shield Commander Police Lt. General Guillermo Eleazar earlier said they would monitor the posts on social media to check if there were violations of the quarantine rules and regulations among the people.

They would specifically look at the activities outside the residences, such as drinking sessions and other mass gatherings.

Eleazar said they would not interfere into the privacy of the people. Celerina Monte/DMS