The case puts more pressure on Facebook, a major platform for false reports, to take action on the matter, experts said

Philippine officials revoked the operating license of local news site Rappler on Monday, a move that experts say is tied to the problem of fake news in the country

Rights and democracy advocates are calling attention to Facebook's role in spreading misinformation again — this time in the Philippines. The social media giant's hosting of inaccurate stories that support strongman President Rodrigo Duterte's administration has been newly spotlighted after Manila moved to shut down a local news site that had been the victim of a misinformation campaign.

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The future of Rappler, a former media partner of Facebook, is in question after a local regulator revoked its operating license on Monday. "The shuttering of Rappler — an organization whose credibility was undermined as a result of fake news and trolling circulating on Facebook — is a tragic reminder to Facebook of the central role it plays in shaping political discourse," said Carly Nyst, a human rights lawyer and independent consultant to non-governmental organizations, think tanks, and the private sector. "It is increasingly untenable for Facebook to deny its role in facilitating the Duterte regime's clampdown on critical voices," she added.

Facebook: We have protections in place

In response to such complaints, Facebook told CNBC it has taken steps to ensure the network is a safe space for people to express themselves politically. Those include new tools and technologies to prevent fake accounts, false stories, clickbait, harassment and hate speech. "We recognize that the same tools that give people more voice can sometimes be abused, by anyone, to spread hoaxes and misinformation," a company representative said. "We prohibit people from setting up fake accounts and have developed improved automated systems — using machine learning and artificial intelligence — to better identify and remove them quickly." The Philippines boasts one of the world's most active social media populations and is a crucial market for Facebook, which has an office in Manila and recently partnered with Duterte's administration on a high-speed Internet infrastructure project. "While Facebook has expressed interest to have partnerships with (academia) and the media to better maximize the platform, it has not lent its voice in denouncing various forms of media harassment and intimidation, or even the prevailing culture of impunity," said Danilo Arao, associate professor at the University of the Philippines. Arao said the company, already under fire for its role in propagating inaccurate articles during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, should use its power and influence to take a stand. But he said he doubts that will happen: "It is still a business, and it does not make good business sense to antagonize governments, no matter how repressive they may be, as in the case of the Philippines." Still, Nyst argued that the social media platform "needs to wake up to the fact that it can no longer claim neutrality and immunity from responsibility, but rather needs to adhere to journalistic ethics befitting of the world's largest publisher."

The shutdown

The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission revoked the outlet's operating license on Monday. The regulator claimed the publication's acceptance of $1 million in funding from a U.S. fund broke a law that bans foreign ownership in media institutions. In response, Rappler has stated that it is owned by Filipinos, and noted that the very same regulator had accepted documentation of the investment in 2015.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Lean Daval Jr. | Reuters