October 23, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Aside from TikTok, candidates in the coming May 2025 elections can also no longer employ troll farms to boost their candidacy.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia said they would run after troll farms operated by candidates during the campaign.
Garcia said the different social media platforms have expressed support for the Comelec’s efforts to get rid of troll farms.
“When we trace the troll farms we will coordinate with the National Bureau of Investigation and Philippine National Police in order to immediately stop the persons involved,” Garcia said in Filipino in a radio interview yesterday.
The poll chief assured the public that Comelec will take action against trolls, unless prevented by the court from doing so.
According to Garcia, the Comelec is requiring candidates, political parties and their staff to register their social media accounts so they can closely monitor and remove those considered to be violating guidelines and ethical standards.
He also said the Comelec does not limit the number of social media accounts a candidate or political party may register with the poll body.
“We do not have a social media regulation law in the Philippines and because of that, if we limit the number of social media accounts (for candidates), we might run into problems,” Garcia explained.
Although they cannot intrude on the content of social media being posted by candidates, Garcia said what is important is for the Comelec to monitor not only the content, but the spending of candidates.
“If the Comelec intrudes in social media content, we would be violating freedom of expression and speech. Regulation should not be the reason to violate the rights provided under the Constitution,” he pointed out.
At this time, Garcia said only 62 out of the 44,000 who have filed their certificates of candidacy (COC) had registered their social media accounts with the Comelec. He expects the number to increase when the deadline for registration approaches.
Garcia warned that failure to register social media accounts could lead to the disqualification of a candidate or filing of an election offense case.
The Comelec, he said, will not only take down online posts, but also file cases against those who would try to use other individuals’ social media accounts.
Cancel COC petitions
Meanwhile, the Comelec is seeing a surge in petitions filed to cancel the COCs of those intending to run in the May 2025 mid-term elections.
Garcia said they expect the number of petitions to reach into thousands as the deadline for filing nears.
Petitions to deny or cancel COCs must be filed not later than a non-extendible period of 25 days from the time of filing of the COC, as provided under Comelec rules.
With the publication of all COCs on the Comelec website, Garcia said the public will be able to check the qualifications of aspirants and file complaints.
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