The various social media platforms, given the speed and scale they can be used for interacting with people and sharing information, has become a societal influencer, in a negative and positive ways.
But when its contents are being used for spreading misleading information, propaganda and/or outright lies by enemies of the state like the Abu Sayyaf and Maute, the terrorist groups responsible for the carnage in Marawi City, the government must step in.
The military is said to have monitored at least 63 accounts that it claimed were being operated by supporters and sympathizers of the Maute Group. These accounts have been spreading malicious and misleading information that affect the information landscape and mindset of the people.
It is an “open secret” in Lanao that the Maute group has managed to recruit some young IT or tech savvy experts and it is using these experts as trolls to spread fake news, misleading information, etc. to push its “evil” agenda.
Lt. Col. Jo-ar Herrera, the spokesperson of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, said these Facebook accounts—mostly dummy accounts—also posted or shared misleading information that affected military operations.
For her part, Sen. Grace Poe is pushing for a congressional inquiry on the proliferation of fake news in order to come up with ways to deal with this problem. She said the spread of fake news is only exacerbated by the fact that even government officials like Justices Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre are exploiting this “weakness” of social media.
I believe, and I suggest, that the security sector and other concerned agencies should help Senator Poe in crafting a meaningful law which would regulate and penalize enemies of the State that are using social networking sites to spread fake news and other forms of disinformation in pursuit of their terroristic or evil designs and activities to undermine the government.
JOMARIE KAYE PATALINGHUG, jokaye1995@gmail.com