Alarmed by the prevalence of fake, malicious, and spurious social media accounts in the country, House Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” D. Alvarez wants to regulate the use of social media by mandating social media companies to verify user applicants before they are allowed to open an account.
The House chief said it is about time to curtail the abuse and misuse of social media and slap penalties against online identity theft.
“In many occasions, users one fake accounts by presenting themselves to the online world as persons whom they are not. This is a classic case of identity theft that is detrimental to society,” Alvarez said in filing House Bill 5021.
HB 5021 or the proposed Social Media Regulation Act of 2017 provides that applicants for social media accounts shall be subjected by social media networks to effective identity verification in order to ascertain the authentic of an account. The applications of those found out as presenting himself as another person whom he is not shall be denied and the user accounts of other persons the authenticity of which are subsequently discovered as compromised shall be shut down.
“This proposed bill seeks to afford a remedial measure on the foregoing matters and will regulate these social media by mandating social media companies (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.) to reasonably verify the identity of user applicants before they are allowed to open an account. Penalties are also provided for failure to comply with this verification requirement,” Alvarez said. (Charissa M. Luci)