DILG slams Facebook over restriction on Esperon

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has scored social media giant Facebook for restricting a post of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on the communist insurgency.

DILG spokesman Jonathan Malaya said the restriction warning made by the platform on Esperon on a national security issue was “unthinkable and downright offensive.”

Malaya described Facebook as a “dystopic Big Brother.”

“This move of the FB is alarming, if not dangerous, as it has appointed itself as an omnipotent force that can censure at their discretion, based on standards that they themselves created, the legitimate posts of highly respected officials of the country,” Malaya said in a statement.

The DILG called out Facebook for supposedly being over-focused in restricting the accounts of government officials and turning a blind eye to other posts.

Malaya, also spokesman for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, said the platform should revisit and modify its fact-checking guidelines and standards, which he said were one-sided and only promote the interests of the powerful.

“We call on FB to stick to its goal of helping people connect and engage, and to leave national security matters to the experts,” he said.

Esperon made a post last week, calling all Filipinos to unite against the New People’s Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

He said that members of the CPP have infiltrated Congress through the party-list system.

“How come I was restricted by Facebook when I shared a status about ending the insurgency in the country? As the NSA, I sure know what I’m talking about and have basis for it. How did I violate the community standards when I only shared the truth?” Esperon said in another post.