MANILA, Philippines - After Facebook said that it is taking misinformation seriously, Senator Francis Pangilinan wants the officers of the social media giant to attend the Senate hearings once scheduled to explain to the public how they are weeding out fake news from their website.
"Facebook acknowledged that it knows people want accurate information. We are interested in finding out how Facebook is doing it because the platform as it is now is still being abused by perpetrators of fake news," Pangilinan said.
On Wednesday the Liberal Party president filed Philippine Senate Resolution 271, directing the appropriate committees to conduct an investigation on how Facebook can be penalized for not being able to regulate fake news on its site.
Facebook, in a statement to the media, responded that it has been working on to fight fake news for a long time and admitted that it still has more work to do.
"Facebook's role in this digital age has become very crucial in the practice of democracy as it moved from a social networking site to a media company. We are hoping that Facebook would take a lead in helping the public in discerning truth from lies and fabrication that are being spread massively to influence public opinion and national discourse," Pangilinan said.
Facebook further acknowledged the problem to be "complex, both technically and philosophically." It added that it does "not want to be arbiters of truth" and "instead [relies] on our community and trusted third parties."
"We wish to understand Facebook's standards and mechanisms in identifying violators on its platform. In so doing, the public will be informed which information to trust and where to get them from," Pangilinan said.
"Facebook acknowledged that it knows people want accurate information. We are interested in finding out how Facebook is doing it because the platform as it is now is still being abused by perpetrators of fake news," Pangilinan said.
On Wednesday the Liberal Party president filed Philippine Senate Resolution 271, directing the appropriate committees to conduct an investigation on how Facebook can be penalized for not being able to regulate fake news on its site.
Facebook, in a statement to the media, responded that it has been working on to fight fake news for a long time and admitted that it still has more work to do.
"Facebook's role in this digital age has become very crucial in the practice of democracy as it moved from a social networking site to a media company. We are hoping that Facebook would take a lead in helping the public in discerning truth from lies and fabrication that are being spread massively to influence public opinion and national discourse," Pangilinan said.
Facebook further acknowledged the problem to be "complex, both technically and philosophically." It added that it does "not want to be arbiters of truth" and "instead [relies] on our community and trusted third parties."
"We wish to understand Facebook's standards and mechanisms in identifying violators on its platform. In so doing, the public will be informed which information to trust and where to get them from," Pangilinan said.
