JIRE CARREON/RAPPLER
MANILA, Philippines — The camp of the outgoing Vice President Leni Robredo is now planning to file a lawsuit against personalities and social media pages that continue to disseminate ‘Fake News’ on all social media platforms against the outgoing VP right after her term on June 30.
According to University of the Philippines journalism professor Yvonne Chua at the recent Senate constitutional amendments and revision of codes committee hearing in February amid the 2022 Presidential election, most instances of disinformation on social media platforms were directed against Robredo.
Robredo was also recognized as the top target and most prominent victim of disinformation based on data gathered by an academe-media fact-checking collaboration. At the same time, President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is the beneficiary of positive but misleading messaging on social media.
Robredo’s spokesperson, Atty Barry Gutierrez, cited during the VP’s weekly radio program that a major initiative would be launched to address the proliferation of fake news and lies on social media, stressing that this kind of trend is harmful to democracy and public discourse.
“It is clear that we will do some actions to fight and respond to fake news. In the coming weeks, we will have some announcements on what to do to stop the lies on social media.”
ATTY BARRY GUTIERREZ
Gutierrez noted that this action would benefit Robredo and other victims of disinformation on social media as well, citing that this legal initiative is part of the advocacy to bring out the truth and foster discussions based on facts, not based on fake news.