‘Hate speech’ vs ‘overbilling electric utility’ binura ng FB

 DESMAYADO ang grupong nagbibigay proteksiyon sa consumers at nakikipaglaban sa ginagawang pang-aabuso ng Manila Electric Company (Meralco) makarang isara o burahin ng Facebook ang mga naka-post na maraming pagbatikos laban sa kompanya.

“We received a notice that someone has complained about our posts. We have received similar complaints before, but we trusted Facebook to act correctly since nothing ever came out of these complaints. But on 9 June, we were unpublished by Facebook, and received an email saying that ‘pages which are hateful, obscene, or threatening are not allowed.’ We have filed an appeal and released an open letter to Facebook which disputes the process and the findings of that process,” ayon kay Gerry Arances, Convenor ng Power for People Coalition (P4P), the group behind the page.

Ang nasabing grupo ang nangunguna sa pakikipaglaban sa Meralco dahil sa labis at di-maipaliwanag na ‘billing,’ paggamit ng ‘coal’ o karbon na bukod sa napakamahal ay nakasisira pa sa kalikasan at nakasasama sa kalusugan ng mga mamamayan, maging ang patuloy na pagbalewala sa isyu ng ‘consumer refunds.’

“Recently, we have been posting information regarding Meralco’s overbilling during the quarantine and our efforts to reclaim P19 billion that have yet to be refunded to consumers. These are legitimate concerns that have been heard before the Joint Congressional Energy Commission, in which P4P was invited to speak. Apart from these posts, which are clearly not hateful, threatening, or obscene, we have never posted any false information, alleged any officer employee of Meralco to have any personal scandal, nor made any criticism that cannot be backed up by facts,” giit ng grupo sa kanilang open letter sa Facebook nitong Martes na naka-address sa  local representative, Clare Amador, upang ireklamo ang naging desisyon ng Facebook.

“While we have filed our appeal, it is also important to raise serious concerns over your process in resolving complaints. The lack of due process in the unpublishing of our page is blatant. We were not given the opportunity to be heard and to defend ourselves from any complaints. Under your current process, it seems that the determination of violations is subject to the complete discretion of whoever receives the complaint. We hope that we will be allowed to present our side, and that processes for determining complaints would be improved,” nakasaad sa liham ng grupo.

Ayon sa grupo, kinakailangan ng Facebook na maging ‘transparent’ at walang kinikilingan sa kanilang pagrerebyu at pagpoproseso sa mga komento na ipino-post ng kanilang mga kliyente.

“We want fairness and clarity on the part of Facebook. Who determines what is what in their

Terms of Use? Do their users have a say, and how much? Even if Facebook claims they are a private company, by virtue of their dominance of social media and their assumption of regulatory powers over free speech, they are also saddled with the responsibility of being transparent to all,” dagdag ng convenor ng P4P.