Pangilinan to Comelec: Urge FB, TikTok to block trolls

Former senator and senatorial candidate Kiko Pangilinan has called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to coordinate with social media platforms such as Meta (Facebook), TikTok, and YouTube in suspending or deactivating troll accounts during the election campaign period.

Pangilinan made the appeal after being targeted by what he described as an “orchestrated” and “well-funded” disinformation campaign stemming from a viral food blog video that showed him eating rice and carabao milk from a pot cover.

He pointed to the laughing reactions on the video—many of which appeared to come from Vietnamese-sounding accounts—as alleged evidence of a coordinated smear effort.

“My appeal to Comelec is to look into what more can be done to control the massive disinformation, trolling, and bashing happening on social media,” he said in Filipino.

“Maybe Comelec can call, sit down with Meta, sit down with TikTok and come up with a Memorandum of Agreement of some sorts so that between now and election campaign day that there will be coordination and cooperation in addressing disinformation, bashing, and trolling online,” Pangilinan added.

The viral video was part of a food blog collaboration with social media personality Romeo Catacutan, filmed during a boodle fight in Pampanga. In one clip, Catacutan could be heard asking someone to hand Pangilinan a pot cover to use while eating rice and milk.

“We hope something comes out of this. Chairman George Garcia, we appeal for cooperation between digital media giants and the Comelec in combating disinformation,” Pangilinan said.