The Liberal Party (LP) of the Philippines on Thursday condemned the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) videos on social media surrounding the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, particularly involving its principal author, Senator Francis Pangilnan.
In a statement, the party said the “irresponsible and malicious” actions on social media do nothing in achieving justice and called on social media platforms to strengthen their mechanisms against the manipulation of young people.
“We call on social media platforms that profit from operating in the Philippines to strengthen their mechanisms against the manipulation of young people and against the erasure and distortion of the truth. There is no doubt that what you are currently doing is far from sufficient to monitor and reduce the deliberate manipulation of algorithms through troll operations,” the party said.
“As a result, social media feeds repeatedly favor content that is clearly harmful but highly profitable. Reporting mechanisms for deceptive content must also be strengthened and made more effective, especially when such content targets young people,” they added.
Meanwhile, in a Messenger chat to The Manila Times on Thursday, Tindig Pilipinas co-convenor Kiko Aquino-Dee said while he supports the current juvenile laws, there are some reasons to question it.
“I support the current juvenile justice law passed by Sen. Kiko, but I think there are good faith reasons to question it. Fake news though just makes it much harder to have that good faith conversation,” he said.
“I think the law is satisfactory as it is. I just think it's understandable that some people would support lowering the age of criminal responsibility after a heinous crime committed by minors. I hope though that those advocating that present their case reasonably so it can be debated rather than spread fake news,” he added.
Debates on the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act grew, following the school shooting in Tacloban City that saw two teenagers kill three students in the incident.
