Opinion-Column | Fighting fake news | By Danton Remoto
Columns
FAKE news is the bane of our times. Nowadays, it can be swiftly spread through clicks, shares and likes in social media. No more need for face-to-face encounters of people whispering to each other. No more need, even, for traditional print media to publish them. A short video on YouTube, a shorter clip on TikTok and a post with a photograph on Facebook is all it takes for fake news to take wing.
To fight this malady of our times, private-sector groups have launched the Digital Media Standards Coalition. It aims to combat false narratives, misinformation and disinformation in the digital space. It is also writing a Code of Ethics to be submitted to Rep. Geraldine Roman, who is in charge of drafting an anti-fake news bill in Congress. The representative from Bataan has a graduate degree in journalism and worked as an editor at the Spanish news agency before returning to Manila to take over the political mantle of the Roman family. Roman is finished with the draft, which she will file on June 2.
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The coalition is composed of more than 10 groups, according to its chairman, Antonio Mauricio. Its initial members include the Blockchain Council of the Philippines, the Creator and Influencer Council of the Philippines, the Kapisanan ng Social Media Broadcasters of the Philippines, the Cybersecurity Council of the Philippines and the Global All Council Philippines, the National Coalition for Financial Management Students, the Junior Confederation of Finance Association of the Philippines, the Finance Educators Association of the Philippines, and the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication trustee Olivia Celeste Villafuerte.
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Roman said her office is consulting with the coalition members and other stakeholders to fine-tune the bill. “What it seeks to do is to regulate social media platforms by requiring them to establish a legal entity or presence in our country. It also requires these social media platforms to verify the different accounts,” she added.
The thing with regulating social media news is how to strike a balance between freedom of expression, which is enshrined in the Constitution, and the cybercrime laws of the land?
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Roman said that they are also working to prevent censorship and ensure that the bill maintains a balance between stopping misinformation and protecting freedom of speech. It becomes then a weighing scale that will stand in the middle, with accountability on one side and protection of individual rights on the other.
‘Fight of our times’
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) under Secretary Jay Ruiz has also put the fight against fake news as one of its advocacies. They set up a task force against fake news for the recent elections, as well as a memorandum of agreement signed with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center to fight fake news and misinformation.Ruiz said that the PCO will leverage the expertise of Scam Watch Pilipinas, a national cybersecurity movement dedicated to educating Filipinos on cyber fraud and addressing cybersecurity gaps at the grassroots level. He hopes that more agencies will join the campaign against fake news.
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“Fake news has become prevalent in recent times. Fighting fake news is the fight of our generation. We should all join hands and work together to win this fight,” he added.
The PCO has mandated its attached agencies to designate dedicated fact-checking officers to strengthen internal mechanisms against spreading fake news. It has partnered with Vera Files to conduct sessions to counter misinformation and disinformation. Vera Files is a verified fact-checking partner of Meta that works to debunk claims of fake news circulating online.
Fake accounts
Moreover, several government agencies have warned against fake accounts pretending to be official accounts of their offices and promising nonexistent jobs. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has issued an advisory warning the public against a Viber account that uses the photograph of Deputy Governor Chuchi Fonacier to offer work online.
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The sender was recruiting for an e-commerce company that allegedly offers jobs with a daily income of from P500 to P5,000. The state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) also said that it had received reports of contract agreements linked to Lucky Bingo Corp.
Pagcor said that the company “reportedly offered guidance and support for people to earn P50,000 through its lottery platform.” That is the bait, and the fraud lies here: As part of the agreement, bettors are asked to make an initial deposit of P3,000.
Jesus Fernandez, Pagcor head of offshore gaming and licensing, said: “While Lucky 7 Bingo Corp. is a legitimate licensee for e-games venue operation as of April 30, 2025, it does not hold any valid offshore gaming license. The license presented in the said agreements is fake, and any agreement based on it is fraudulent.”
Deepfake videos
The Securities and Exchange Commission, for its part, has also issued a warning. This time, it’s for the use of “deepfake technology” to promote fake investment opportunities. The net widens.
Deepfakes are synthetic videos, audio recordings and images done by artificial intelligence that can mimic real people. I’ve seen this on Facebook and didn’t open the posts. Some of these deepfakes have been using the names and likenesses of billionaires and business tycoons like Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Lance Gokongwei, Ramon Ang and Enrique Razon Jr.
The SEC advisory lamented: “They undermine our ability to differentiate what is real and what is not. This will have tremendous economic and societal implications — if not averted.”
SEC has cautioned the public to be more discerning. They should track down the source of the questionable content, and does the video ask you to do “something unusual” — like forking over cash for an investment that would bring lots of cash in a short time.
“Be wary of messages that urge you to download unfamiliar apps, click suspicious links, provide personal information, or invest in offers that seem too good to be true.”
Caveat emptor, as the ancients would put it. Buyers beware, in the new and global marketplace of likes, clicks and shares.
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THE EDITOR
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