Techdirt's think tank, the Copia Institute, is working with the Trust & Safety Professional Association and its sister organization, the Trust & Safety Foundation, to produce an ongoing series of case studies about content moderation decisions. These case studies are presented in a neutral fashion, not aiming to criticize or applaud any particular decision, but to highlight the many different challenges that content moderators face and the tradeoffs they result in. Find more case studies here on Techdirt and on the TSF website.

Content Moderation Case Study: Facebook Targets Misinformation Spread By The Philippines Government (2020)

from the misinformation-challenges dept

Summary: Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte's rise to power was greatly aided by Facebook and its overwhelming popularity within the country. An estimated 97% of Filipinos have Facebook accounts and the company itself co-sponsored a Q&A session with local journalists that was broadcast on 200 radio and television stations and livestreamed on the platform. Questions were crowdsourced from Facebook users, helping propel the mayor of Davao to the highest office in the country.

Duterte's run for office was also directly assisted by Facebook, which flew a team of reps in to help the candidate's campaign staff maximize the platform's potential. As his campaign gathered critical mass, he and his team began weaponizing the tools handed to him by Facebook, spreading misinformation about other candidates and directly targeting opponents and their supporters with harassment and threats of violence.

Not much has changed since Duterte took office in 2016. Facebook continues to be his preferred social media outlet. But Facebook's latest attempt to tackle the spread of misinformation on its platform may prompt Duterte to find another outlet to weaponize. In September 2020, Facebook's moderation team announced they had removed a "network" linked to the Philippines government for violating its rules against "coordinated inauthentic behavior."

We also removed 64 Facebook accounts, 32 Pages and 33 Instagram accounts for violating our policy against foreign or government interference which is coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign or government entity. This network originated in the Philippines and focused on domestic audiences. (Updated on October 12, 2020 at 6:35PM PT to reflect the latest enforcement numbers.)

Facebook's removal of this content prompted immediate comments from President Duterte. The president's response to Facebook's moderation efforts was a reminder from Duterte that he has the power to shut the platform down in his country if he believes he's being treated unfairly.

“I allow you to operate here,” Mr. Duterte said. “You cannot bar or prevent me from espousing the objectives of government. Is there life after Facebook? I don’t know. But we need to talk.”

Questions and policy implications to consider:

  • Does targeting official government accounts increase the risk of the platform being banned or blocked in targeted countries?
  • Does the possible loss of market share affect moderation decisions targeting governments?
  • Should Facebook be directly involved in setting up social media campaigns for political figures/government entities?
  • Does Facebook have any contingency plans in place to mitigate collateral damage to citizens in countries where the platform has been subjected to retaliatory actions by governments whose content/accounts have been removed?
Resolution: Facebook's Philippines office offered no comment in response to Duterte's threats and the targeted accounts remain deactivated. Facebook is still operating in the country and, although Duterte threatened harsher regulation may be in the works, nothing has surfaced to date.

Originally posted to the Trust & Safety Foundation website.

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Filed Under: content moderation, coordinated inauthentic behavior, philippines, rodrigo duterte, trolls
Companies: facebook


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2021 @ 8:17pm

    "Summary: Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte's rise to power was greatly aided by Facebook and its overwhelming popularity within the country. An estimated 97% of Filipinos have Facebook accounts and the company itself co-sponsored a Q&A session with local journalists that was broadcast on 200 radio and television stations and livestreamed on the platform. Questions were crowdsourced from Facebook users, helping propel the mayor of Davao to the highest office in the country. "

    Should be a hint that the site isn't exactly as private as people want to make it out to be.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2021 @ 8:20pm

      Re:

      But in all seriousness, while it's good they're removing troll accounts; I don't think anyone should trust Facebook to the be arbiter of misinformation, either. The fact 97% of the country have a facebook account shows that it's a fixture in their electoral system whether people want to waffle on whether it's a private company that can do whatever it wants or not.

      I'm sure this will be the norm in coming elections.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2021 @ 4:37am

        Re: Re:

        Anyone who trusts a single outlet for news or otherwise is being foolish.

        The statistic regarding facebook accounts vs population is not indicative as to whether said accounts use FB exclusively for their news source.

        Forcing FB to regulate content IAW your opinions is not going to produce the desired affect(s).

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Stephen T. Stone (profile), 23 Jan 2021 @ 5:27am

        The fact 97% of the country have a facebook account shows that it's a fixture in their electoral system whether people want to waffle on whether it's a private company that can do whatever it wants or not.

        Your point is…what, exactly? Unless Facebook is receiving money from the government of the Philippines to act as an arm of the government, it isn’t a government actor. Wanting the opposite conclusion to be a fact doesn’t make it a fact.

        Yes, the societal power wielded by Facebook is at least worrisome. That said: The people who use Facebook for their top (and possibly only) news source have to take responsibility for that choice. Facebook isn’t forcing people to do that.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 24 Jan 2021 @ 2:00pm

          Re:

          The people saying Facebook is responsible for the Rhogani genocide and that it is worrisome that they can exercise control, would you please make up your minds already!

          Is the problem that they exercise too much control or not enough of it? Is the issue that they are stronger than governments or that they cave to authoritarian regimes? There can be fertile debates about which stance is better but only madness results from askinf to do two contradictory actions at once.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2021 @ 2:57pm

      Re:

      How does this make it not private?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Jan 2021 @ 9:00pm

    Facebook has grown too big at this point. We need smaller units.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2021 @ 9:46am

    Re: facbook policy

    Are you a GPT2 chatbot? Because that was so incoherent that it caused you to fail a Turing test.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Jan 2021 @ 2:58pm

    Facebook: FeelsCIAman

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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