A Facebook (FB) reel claims that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said the tech giant will disable social media accounts of all Philippine politicians by next year. This is fake. Zuckerberg did not make such a pronouncement.
Uploaded on April 13, the reel bore a photo of Zuckerberg along with the quote:
“Meta is now carefully reviewing all the social media accounts of all politicians In The Philippines To Shut Down By Next Year Only Politicians.”
Neither Zuckerberg nor any of Meta’s official channels has made any statement about a review and removal of the social media accounts of Filipino politicians in any of its platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp.
According to Meta’s Transparency Center, it only disables an account if it “continues to post content that goes against the Community Standards despite repeated warnings and restrictions.”
Meta removed over 400 accounts and pages in the Philippines for engaging in “malicious activities” ahead of the May 2022 elections.
In 2020, Meta took down 181 fake accounts that were engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior or deceptive campaigns, and were linked to the police and military. This move by the tech giant caught the ire of then president Rodrigo Duterte, who threatened to ban Meta’s platforms in the Philippines.
Uploaded by an FB user, the reel received 177,000 views and 3,478 interactions.
