PCOO denies promoting fake news, deploying ‘trolls’

Posted by watchmen
January 11, 2018
Posted in HEADLINE
By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Ana Marie Banaag yesterday denied allegations their office has been proliferating fake news and deploying ‘internet trolls’ in order to gather support for President Rodrigo Duterte.
Banaag, who paid a courtesy call on Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. at the Provincial Capitol, alongside PCOO Provincial Communication Officers Network Director Pebbles Duque, gave a press conference where she said it is “easy” to attack the government.
“We are actually prone to being trolled and bashed as well,” she stated.
The PCOO officials also denied funding pro-Duterte groups that use social media to target critics of the president.
Banaag said they are currently looking into ways of regulating social media in order to prevent such activity, but admitted the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) cybercrime group are unable to take such action.
She has also sought the assistance of the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, which is chaired by Senator Grace Poe, to request social media platforms to implement more regulations./DGB, WDJ
(From left) PCOO Assistant Secretary Ana Marie Banaag, Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr., and Provincial Communication Officers Network Director Pebbles Duque during a courtesy visit at the Provincial Capitol, yesterday. (Richard Malihan photo)

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