David Bridges
Philstar.com
September 22, 2022 | 11:16am
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police is launching concerted efforts to block what it says are recent attempts at disinformation on social media.
In a statement sent to reporters Thursday morning, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said that authorities noted circulating photos from a 2017 case involving a dismembered body in Quezon City.
The Quezon City Police District said it had to “fact check” the news item, which was suddenly being shared and reposted by netizens anew in recent days.
Police Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., chief of the PNP cautioned the public anew to be wary of fake news circulating in social media and be responsible in sharing and posting information.
“Please always be mindful of the authenticity of the information and the credibility of its source,” Azurin said.
“Unverified information or any information that cannot be independently validated as factual should always be dealt with caution and prudence, especially if the source is dubious or unknown.”
The PNP’s Anti-Cybercrime Group said it is conducting its own investigation to gather more evidence to support its request for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to permanently take down “fake news” in the social networking platform.
At a press briefing earlier this week, Azurin also said that fake news was also to blame for the public’s mounting anxiety over the recent spate of kidnapping cases.
“When some cases go viral on social media, a number of those are already solved or are under investigation,” he said in Filipino. “These are not kidnapping for ransom cases. Some of these cases are abduction, human trafficking, and robbery holdup. We just need to have good categorization of the crimes being posted on social media.”
Azurin slammed quarters whom he claimed were “sowing fear among the people” by making it appear as though the peace and order situation on the ground is “uncontainable.”
“I really don’t know what the intention of these people are. If they think they are hurting the PNP by doing that, they are not only hurting the PNP but hurting the economy of this country,” he said in Filipino. — Franco Luna
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