KMU wants NBI to identify red-taggers

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas, INQINQUIRER.net, 14 Jul 2021

MANILA, Philippines – Labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) has asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to identify the people behind several social media posts that tagged them and other cause-oriented organizations as part of the communist group.

In a letter to NBI officer-in-charge Director Eric Distor, KMU said they were alarmed by the proliferation of anti-communist propaganda tagging labor leaders and members of workers’ organizations as part of the communist movement.

“We call on the NBI to immediately look into these cases of attacks, smear campaign, and disinformation drive against us—workers, labor leaders, labor unions, and workers’ rights advocates and our organizations,” read the letter signed by KMU Chairman Elmer Labog and its Secretary-General Jerome Adonis.

The same letter also called on the NBI to look into “state-funded troll farms which generate content in these social media accounts and pages, and investigate the misuse of public funds which violates the General Appropriations Act.”

They said red-tagging officers and members of workers’ organizations “undermine our organization’s integrity and grossly violate our rights to organize workers, form unions, and the people’s freedom of association as guaranteed by the Philippine Constitution and provided in International Conventions.”

They said the “vilification,” “mounting hysteria,” and “hate-campaign” “endangers our life and liberty as free citizens.”

Attached in their letter were photocopies of the social media accounts that red-tagged their group and other cause-oriented organizations.

Last year, social media giant Facebook shut down over 100 fake accounts traced to police and military units in the Philippines for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” (CIB).

Just recently, the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) is under fire after it was flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) for hiring 375 “social media specialists” last year.