PCO chief calls for socmed regulations

Presidential Communications Office (PCO) ad-interim Secretary Jay Ruiz renewed his call to push for regulation in social media amid the proliferation of fake news in the country.

“The PCO's position is that there should be self-regulation with the vloggers or the platforms themselves. The platforms that host vloggers are foreign-owned, they don't have headquarters here, they don't pay business taxes and they only have a few Filipino employees. And they make their money from Filipinos. So that's sucking up revenue that's for Filipino networks that are legitimate Filipinos,” he said during the re-launch of Media Security Vanguards in Quezon City on Tuesday.

Ruiz argued that purveyors of fake news continue to spread misinformation on social media, prompting his call for regulation.

“We should be able to intervene and say that you should regulate this because all that is coming out is fake news with no responsibility, no consequences,” he stressed.

“There should be content moderation, they must do it,” Ruiz added, referring to vloggers who post content on Meta. “It is necessary within META when you flag down that it is fake and not real news, they should immediately take action saying ‘wait, this is fake news’. You tag it, but nothing like that happens. The platforms themselves should have self-regulation.”

Ruiz explained that information is power and the new warfare: “The fight against fake news is not only the government's fight but of all of us”.

The PCO chief said the young generation must be protected from fake news.

Under Ruiz’s leadership, the PCO is waging a war against misinformation and disinformation, particularly on fake news seen online.