Palace shrugs off Facebook’s shutting down of pro-Duterte accounts

October 23, 2018

Malacanang said on Tuesday President Rodrigo Duterte's supporters could express their views on other social media sites.

This was after Facebook shut down some of the pages and accounts supporting Duterte.

"Facebook must have its rules and regulations. If they are implementing that, then that's their own rule," said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo.

"Now, if the concern is, there will be no more avenues, there are so many avenues. We have Twitter, Instagram and many others where the advocates can express themselves in support of this administration," he added.

According to Facebook, it removed from its platform a network of 95 pages and 39 accounts in the Philippines for violating its spam and authenticity policies.

Among those shut down were apparently supportive of Duterte. These include Duterte Media, Duterte sa Pagbabago BUKAS, DDS, Duterte Phenomenon, DU30 Trending News, Hot Babes, News Media Trends, Bossing Vic, Pilipinas Daily News, Like and Win, Manang Imee, and Karlo ang Probinsiyano.

The Duterte administration has been accused of maintaining "trolls," who attack social media accounts and pages critical of Duterte and his administration. Celerina Monte/DMS