THE government is stepping up its campaign against fake news.

As the lead communications arm of the state, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) has in fact collaborated with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) to combat misinformation.

A memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed recently by PCO Secretary Jay Ruiz and CICC Executive Director Undersecretary Alexander Ramos.

During the signing ceremony, Ruiz said a whole-of-government approach is required to deal with fake news.

Thus, he has mandated all its attached agencies to designate dedicated fact-checking officers to strengthen internal mechanisms against spreading false information.

PCO’s attached agencies are the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Peoples’ Television Network, Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation, News Information Bureau, Bureau of Communications Services, National Printing Office, APO Production Unit, and the Freedom of Information-Program Management Office.

Ruiz hoped more government agencies would join the campaign against fake news and misinformation.

Meanwhile, the PCO chief bared it 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.

Earlier, the agency has partnered with VERA Files to conduct training sessions to counter misinformation and disinformation.

VERA Files is a verified fact-checking partner of Meta that works to debunk false claims circulating online.

The PCO also launched a Media and Information Literacy Campaign focused on educating the youth on assessing and validating information sources, helping them distinguish falsehoods from the truth.

“Fake news has become prevalent in recent times. It has become even stronger in the last weeks after former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by Interpol and brought to The Hague in the Netherlands to face allegations of crimes against humanity,” he said.

“Fighting fake news is the fight of our generation. We should all join hands and work together to win this fight,” he added.

Ruiz lamented that the nation is being divided by online disinformation, misinformation and fake news.

In a House Tri-Committee’s (Tri-Comm) hearing on malicious and fake online content recently, the executive said, “What is happening to us right now is we are being polarized, being divided online. Filipinos are being pitted against Filipinos.”

The division happening in the country, according to Ruiz, is similar to the discord the world is seeing in the United States(US).

He welcomed the Tri-Comm inquiry into fake news and proposed that the PCO, Department of Justice (DoJ), and Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) collaborate closely in combatting the spread of fake news.

Neutralizing malicious online content “is the big fight” the nation should be waging, he said.

“Lies, repeated a thousand times, becomes the truth. We have to fight lies with truth. The voice of truth should be louder than lies,” he said.

The PCO chief warned of the dangers of division among the population caused by online disinformation and misinformation.

He also sought attention to the dangers of deepfakes as they received complaints from some overseas Filipino workers who were victimized by deepfake-enabled scams using celebrities.

Let’s all be vigilant against fake news.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Mario Fetalino Jr.