More women who have been victimized by the sexually-exploitive Facebook social media accounts collectively dubbed “pastor hokage” groups are considering the possibility of coming forth to help put pressure on these violators of ethics and morals, even as the management of Facebook indicated that they have taken steps to curb, if not eliminate, the rogue accounts.
According to Koko Rodriguez, the administrator of the rights advocacy CATCALLED IN THE PHILIPPINES Facebook Page, he has touched base with a few of the victims who have fallen prey to the actions of those using the pastor hokage type of accounts.
Among the law-breaking acts committed were displaying and spreading images and, in some cases, the private contact details of these women without their consent, in the process feeding a frenzy of public shaming and moral exploitation by false imputation of their reputation.
Among other consequences, these incidents have led to a deluge of indecent proposals feeding into these women.
“For the moment, the fight is a bit skewed in favor of the hokage groups because it is relatively easy for them to cloak themselves or obfuscate their identities and hide in the vast digital space,” Koko said.
While the public furor by netizens has caused a number of these hokage accounts to be exposed and, therefore, subject to closure, many resort to changing their assumed identities and just proceed to creating new accounts.
In response, the management of Facebook has issued a statement: “We are committed to providing a service where people feel safe. As outlined in our Community Standards, nudity and sexual exploitation are not allowed.
“We take swift action to remove this content when we’re made aware of it. We have removed Groups which violate our policies and have taken steps to detect similar Groups and remove those which violate.
“We also remove all instances of non-consensual intimate content when we become aware of it, and use image-matching technology to prevent resharing of the image on our platforms. People can use the reporting links on every piece of content on the site, and we will take action on content that violates our standards.”
According to JJ Disini, Managing Partner of the Disini and Disini law firm, these cases are actionable, especially in instances where private information are posted without consent. “They are in breach of the Data Privacy Act.”
The same reaction is echoed by Raymund Liboro, Commissioner of the National Privacy Commission.
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