Duterte supporters shift to ‘Russian Facebook’

MANILA, Philippines — Several supporters of President Duterte have migrated to Russian social media platform VK after Facebook announced a new fact checking initiative in the country. 

Paula Defensor-Knack, sister of the late senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, urged fellow Duterte supporters to create accounts in VK, a social networking service mainly catering to Russian-speaking users. However, she reminded supporters not to delete their Facebook accounts. 

The migration to the Russian social media platform appeared to be in response to the launch of Facebook’s third-party fact checking initiative. 

Facebook tapped Vera Files and Rappler to serve as third-party fact checkers that will review news stories flagged by users as possibly containing false information.

“We are committed to fighting the spread of false news and misinformation on multiple fronts by employing a variety of tools and tactics,” said Clair Deevy, Facebook’s director for community affairs for Asia Pacific.

While Duterte’s supporters may be up in arms over the choice of Vera Files and Rappler, Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV believes it was the right decision.

Earlier, musician and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. executive Jimmy Bondoc threatened to leave Facebook if the fact checking initiative with Vera Files and Rappler pushes through – a post he has since deleted.

Bondoc said he would stay on the social media platform because of the petition asking Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg not to choose Vera Files and Rappler. – With Marvin Sy