Several Facebook users have been circulating a social media graphic claiming that Senate President Vicente Sotto III is aiming to impose a 50% tax on online content creators. This is not true.
Since Oct. 9, netizens have been sharing a graphic similar to those published by legitimate news organizations. It features a photo of Sotto along with the supposed headline:
“SMALL AND BIG CONTENT CREATOR DAPAT MAY 50% TAX SA KINIKITA NILA SA CONTENT MONETIZATION AYON KAY TITO SOTTO (SMALL AND BIG CONTENT CREATORS MUST BE TAXED BY 50% ON THEIR EARNINGS FROM CONTENT MONETIZATION, ACCORDING TO TITO SOTTO).”
Several users thought the post to be legitimate and criticized the Senate president.
This is false. There is no such proposal from the Senate leader.
No bill has been authored and filed by Sotto imposing a 50% tax on content creators in the Senate website‘s directory of 20th Congress legislations.
Sotto debunked the claim during a Senate plenary session where he clarified that he has never pushed for any additional tax measures in his 24 years in the upper house.
He posted an advisory on his official FB page debunking the graphic and other recent false information that circulated about him.
In 2021, the Bureau of Internal Revenue issued a memorandum on taxing online content creators but this mechanism only relies on the influencers’ voluntary tax declarations.
The false graphics circulated four days after Sotto dismissed rumors of attempts to oust him as the Senate president during a press conference. There are also talks about the Senate’s instability under Sotto’s watch, which worsened after Sen. Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson’s resignation as chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee following criticisms from colleagues of his handling of the investigations into the anomalous flood control projects.
VERA Files has debunked other disinformation related to Sotto.
At least ten copies posted by FB users and pages collectively garnered 695 engagements.
