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Philippine President Targets Facebook for Taking Down Fake Accounts

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ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia

Philippine President Targets Facebook for Taking Down Fake Accounts

After cannily manipulating Facebook in his campaign for the presidency, Rodrigo Duterte is intimating that he might shut the social network down.

Philippine President Targets Facebook for Taking Down Fake Accounts

Maria Ressa, the editor of the news site Rappler, which helped bring the fake accounts to Facebook’s attention.

Credit: Flickr/World Economic Forum

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has lashed out at Facebook, a week after it deactivated a host of sock-puppet accounts that had beamed out messages supportive of his policies.

In his weekly late-night address on September 28, Duterte excoriated the social media behemoth and accused it of supporting left-wing activists opposed to his administration. “I allow you to operate here,” Duterte said. “You cannot bar or prevent me from espousing the objectives of government. Is there life after Facebook? I don’t know. But we need to talk.”

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