December 2021

Meta Response:
Philippines Human Rights
Impact Assessment

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview

3

Findings

7

HRIA Recommendations

10

Overview

10

1. Misinformation and Disinformation

11

2. Online Harassment

17

3. Incitement to Violence21

4. Surveillance23

5. Online Sexual Exploitation

24

6. Trafficking

29

7. Extremist Activity

30

8. Corporate Accountability

31

9. Updated HRIA Recommendations (from September 2021)

32

Appendix: Detailed Summary of Efforts Undertaken 2017 - 2021

36

I. Digital Citizenship36

II. Elections Preparedness37

III. Economic Inclusion

38

IV. Mental Health Resources

39

V. Policy Improvements

39

VI. Scaling Safety and Security

40

VII. Fighting Misinformation

42

VIII. Cybersecurity Enforcement

43

IX. Support for Journalists and Human Rights Defenders

44

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

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Overview
Human rights conditions in the Philippines have long been fragile.1 Marred by a legacy of brutal
authoritarian rule that ended only in 1986, and a history of simmering insurgencies, conditions
have worsened in recent years—and deteriorated further in 2020.2
The administration of current president Rodrigo Duterte has been marked by a bloody drug war
and extrajudicial killings; the widespread government-sanctioned harassment and “red tagging”
of human rights defenders, journalists, and political opponents; and the implementation of
overbroad and vague government powers through 2020 anti-terrorism legislation.3 Online
misinformation and disinformation are widely reported to be ongoing threats and noted in theexecutive summary of this assessment by Article One. Trafficking and sexual exploitation,
including of children, continue to be major challenges.
In 2021, Freedom House’s influential Freedom in the World index gave the Philippines a score of
56 out of 100, classifying it as “partly free”, declining from 61 in 2019. In the related Freedom on
the Net report, focused more narrowly on internet freedom issues, the country scored 65 out of100. Other human rights indices highlight further cause for concern. In 2021, the World Justice
Project’s Rule of Law Index placed the Philippines near the bottom, at 102 out of 139 countries
covered, while the Reporters Without Borders 2021 World Press Freedom Index placed it 138th.
Filipinos are heavy users of social media. Meta’s products are widely used in the country both byindividuals and small and medium-sized businesses. They are also extensively used by Filipinos
1Meta’s publication of the HRIA’s Executive Summary, and its response thereto, cannot be construed as admission,agreement with, or acceptance of any of the findings, conclusions, opinions or viewpoints identified in the Philippines
Human Rights Impact Assessment (“HRIA”) or its Executive Summary, or the methodology that was employed toreach such findings, conclusions, opinions or viewpoints. Likewise, while Meta in its response identifies steps it has
taken, or plans to taken, which may correlate to points raised or recommendations in the HRIA, these also cannot be
deemed an admission, agreement with, or acceptance of any findings, conclusions, opinions or viewpoints in the HRIA
or its Executive Summary. The purpose of Meta’s response is to focus on recommendations related to the HRIA,
rather than to opine on or contest any specific observations, findings or factual conclusions contained in the HRIA.
Any steps taken by Meta in response to the HRIA’s recommendations that may be global in nature, or have impacts onother markets besides the Philippines, should not be interpreted to suggest that such steps are desired or potentiallyappropriate outside of the Philippines.
2“Philippines: Events of 2020” Human Rights Watch World Report 2021.
3
Ibid; UN A/HRC/44/22 Situation of Human Rights in the Philippines, June 2020.

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outside the country. Our family of apps plays an important role in enabling Filipinos to connect
with their families and friends, and to exercise their internationally-defined human rights.
These include security of person, freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right toan adequate standard of living, the right to information, and myriad economic, social, andcultural rights.
We acknowledge the harms, pain and suffering caused by bullying, harassment and other abuses
discussed in the human rights impact assessment (HRIA), which is why we have taken concrete
steps to mitigate those abuses. We’ll continue to do so to help keep people safe.
This HRIA is an important step forward for Meta and our work in the Philippines. By detailing theways in which we have sought and plan to implement Article One’s recommendations — andwhere and why we have not — we have attempted to demonstrate accountability for our humanrights impact. It’s also important to know that our work to address safety, security and humanrights is not static. We are constantly working to evolve our products, policies and processes tocreate better outcomes.
Important as these HRIAs are, we see them as the start of a much bigger process ofengagement with our users and those whose rights are impacted by our platform. We hope theinsight and details we have shared will enable us to improve, iterate, and respect and support
human rights more effectively in the future.

About this HRIA
Against this backdrop of severe human rights challenges, Meta commissioned an independent
HRIA into the impacts of its products in the Philippines. We commissioned this independent
HRIA to identify and mitigate human rights risks, and to inform our future strategy.
The HRIA was conducted by Article One in 2020 and 2021. Article One is a specialized humanrights and ethics consulting firm. Article One’s methodology was based on the UN Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and included qualitative interviews with 32
stakeholders, including journalists, child protection specialists and civil society activists, as well
as a survey of 2,000 Meta users in the Philippines.

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We requested the HRIA include quantitative and not just qualitative work to ensure theexperiences and feedback of a representative sample of rights holders, including vulnerable
rights holders, were directly incorporated in our due diligence. Our quantitative work includes
feedback from urban and rural users, journalists, users who identified as LGBTQ+, andother groups.
Given the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020, in-country researchand interviews were not possible. Article One’s assessment thus relied on detailed discussions
conducted via video conference, telephone-based surveys, and desk-based research. Article One
also independently interviewed more than a dozen Meta staff and multiple teams working on
Philippines issues.
We recognize COVID imposed methodological limitations, but chose to move ahead with due
diligence nonetheless, given the importance of preventing and mitigating salient human rights
risks. The project was updated in mid 2021 to include an analysis of the Anti-Terrorism Law of
July 2020 and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope to deepen in-person
human rights engagements in the Philippines if and when it becomes possible to do so safely.
We note that, during the period of HRIA research, local Meta staff members faced security
challenges related to offline threats, as well as online harassment campaigns.
We are sharing the HRIA’s executive summary, along with this response, to help local andinternational stakeholders better contextualize Meta’s impacts and investments in thePhilippines. This disclosure is also part of Meta’s broader commitment to meaningfultransparency about our human rights due diligence and our product and policy integrity work.

Why Have an HRIA Response?
There’s no standard format for disclosure. To date, Meta has chosen the unusually transparent
step of disclosing actual HRIA executive summaries and recommendations. They are written
independently by HRIA authors, and accurately represent the issues and exact
recommendations made in the full HRIA.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

This Meta response is intended as a summary of the process, the findings and a guide to what
we have done and will do to follow up. By sharing these documents we’re seeking to fulfil the
expectations of Principle 21 of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights(UNGPs) while minimizing risks to stakeholders and company personnel.
We are publishing this HRIA and response as standalone documents in the interest of a timely
disclosure. Going forward, in line with the commitments in our recently-announced corporate
Human Rights Policy, we will generally share actions and insights from our due diligence as partof our annual human rights report.
Good human rights due diligence is not just a compliance exercise. We are actively seeking tolearn from this HRIA to inform our work in the Philippines, to mitigate risks in other settings andto serve users around the world. This HRIA, along with accompanying processes, has helped
change Meta policies, operations and products. The impact has been timely and real.

Acknowledgements
We are deeply grateful to the dozens of Filipino and international human rights defenders, civilsociety organizations and others who provided input to this assessment. You have enabled us
to implement the very important mitigations described in this response and chart a course
forward on the critical issues this HRIA identified, benefiting people in the Philippines andaround the world.

6

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

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Findings
The HRIA found the Meta family of apps — in addition to being widely used and very popular —have had positive human rights impacts in the Philippines, as well as adverse impacts.
Article One’s assessment, based on qualitative and statistically significant quantitative research
focused on a variety of at-risk rights holders, found that using the Facebook app:●

Had expanded opportunities for human rights defenders, journalists, government critics,
and marginalized communities to express themselves, share information, andbuild communities●

Was critical for communication with family and friends in the Philippines and abroad,especially during the COVID-19 pandemic●

Was likewise essential for monitoring and defending human rights during COVID●

Was an important platform for accessing economic opportunities. This was especially thecase for women and other groups who historically faced greater restrictions in accessing
formal employment; 84% of female survey respondents indicated Facebook was
somewhat or very useful for work or business, compared to 78% of men●

Provided a tool for remote teacher training, thereby supporting childrens’ access to
education during COVID

These impacts promoted the realization of rights to work and an adequate standard of living.
Survey results indicated users had also experienced benefits related to freedom of expression
and association; the right to participate in government; rights of access to information andeducation; and freedom from discrimination.

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The HRIA also noted Facebook was associated with a range of salient human rights risks. These
include concerns about:●

Misuse of the platform to spread misinformation and disinformation, which may
contribute to adverse impacts for a range of rights, including the rights to information,and to security of person●

Online harassment of a variety of groups including: journalists (particularly female
journalists), individuals focused on government accountability, political dissidents,
LGBTQ+ users; and ethnic Chinese users●

Incitement of violence, including involvement of government officials, against humanrights defenders and alleged drug users and dealers. This included the practice of“red-tagging” of human rights defenders, which placed targeted individuals at
significantly heightened risk of unlawful killing.4●

Government use of the platform to surveil human rights defenders and other users. The
HRIA noted that government requests for user data were reviewed for legal sufficiency
and accordance with Facebook’s global policies, including the Global Network Initiative(GNI) Principles.

●

Online sexual exploitation, which in the Philippines takes multiple forms, and includes
predators' use of multiple platforms to groom or abuse children, including Meta products.
In addition, women in the Philippines continued to experience cases of sharing of
non-consensual intimate images (NCII).

●

Trafficking, which remains a challenge in the Philippines, and is increasingly facilitatedonline. Trafficking risks included commercial adoption, labor trafficking, and organ sales.

●

4

Highly localized extremist organizing, despite strong policies against such activity

https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/10/philippine-general-should-answer-red-tagging#Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

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Importantly, despite instances of red-tagging, the HRIA did not find misuse of Facebook’s
platform to plan or organize extrajudicial killings against alleged drug users or dealers, thoughstakeholders were concerned online discourse was used to dox, harass, or threaten alleged drug
users or dealers, and may have contributed to a dehumanizing tone of conversations about druguse on Meta platforms.
The HRIA noted there was guidance from human rights standards and related legislation to help
inform how the company should manage some salient risks, but not all. Official guidance related
to balancing of rights related to misinformation and disinformation was less clear. It is important
to be honest about this challenging gap, and Meta notes the work of the UN Special Rapporteuron the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, among
others, in developing related standards.
In addition, stakeholder feedback indicated Meta had improved its proactive risk management
practices since 2018, but suspicion of the platform from civil society stakeholders — including asa result of the bullying and harassment of journalists and human rights defenders — remained
high, even while Philippines users were avid users of the platform.

Meta Response to Findings and Recommendations
We greatly appreciate the work and insights of this HRIA. The section below is focused on HRIA
recommendations, and our responses. But it’s also important to note that the company hastaken multiple steps since 2017 to improve our Community Standards and the way they’reenforced in the Philippines. We’ve also undertaken extensive efforts aimed at improving digitalcitizenship, economic empowerment, support for journalists, and other key challenges. Pleaserefer to the Appendix for a detailed overview of these efforts.

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HRIA Recommendations
Overview
The HRIA made 40 recommendations. At the time of writing, Meta had committed to
implement 24 recommendations, partly implement 7 recommendations and was assessing thefeasibility of another 9.
It is also important to be transparent, and note we may not implement all the recommendations
we’re assessing feasibility for. We will provide an update in our future annual humanrights reporting.
For ease of reading, we have categorized our response to HRIA recommendations to match theorder in which they appear in the HRIA executive summary. We are categorizing our responses
as follows:
Implementing: We have implemented or are implementing steps that are consistent with,or have otherwise satisfied, the recommendation.
Implementing in part: We have implemented or are implementing steps that encompass,or have satisfied, certain of the recommended actions.
Assessing feasibility: We are assessing the feasibility and impact of the recommendation
and will provide further updates in the future.
No further action: We will not implement the recommendation, either due to a lack offeasibility or disagreement about how to reach the desired outcome.
As noted above, for a detailed summary of our Philippines program and policy efforts from 2017
to the present, please see the Appendix.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

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1. Misinformation and Disinformationa) Develop a risk-mitigation plan for the 2022 Presidential elections, focusing especially on
the organized use of disinformation campaigns.
Implementing
Meta has made it a high priority to invest in risk mitigation and preparation efforts for the2022 Philippine presidential election. This work has been underway since 2019. Our
efforts will build from our experience in other elections, such as the 2020 elections in the
US and Myanmar, as well as our work on social media and conflict.
We have already initiated a cross-functional working group dedicated to election
preparations. We have also begun briefing various stakeholders on digital advocacy,community standards, online safety and political advertising. In addition, we are also
strengthening relevant civil society, fact-checking and media partnerships.
We have also expanded our support to Philippines fact checking groups. In 2021,
Internews, supported by Meta, launched the Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator Program
to support six new fact-checking organizations ahead of the 2022 Philippine generalelections. Likewise, we began labelling media outlets determined to be state controlled,
including media entities in the Philippines, in 2020.
Meta also launched a Global Accelerator amongst our fact-checking community. It brings
fact-checking organizations together to innovate, learn and collaborate on new strategies
to improve their business — on and off Facebook.
b) Expand efforts to track and remove coordinated disinformation campaigns that rely onreal profiles.
Implementing
We launched a policy against certain mass harassment/brigading in August 2021 —strongly inspired by the experiences documented in the HRIA — after consultation
with key human rights stakeholders in the Philippines and around the world.

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We have also strengthened our ability to take action against coordinated social harms byauthentic users.
c) Implement the recommendations of Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit related to voter
interference in the Philippines.
Implementing
In response to feedback from our global stakeholders and the important work of the Civil
Rights Audit in the US, we have significantly expanded our global policies addressing
voter interference.
Our Community Standards now prohibit offers to buy or sell votes; content advocating orproviding instructions for voter fraud; misrepresentation of dates, locations, times, andmethods for voting or voter registration; misrepresentation of who can vote andrequirements for voting; and content implying that people will be infected with COVID-19(or other diseases) if they vote. These policies apply globally, including in the Philippines.
We’ve also introduced measures to reduce the risk that potentially harmful Groups arerecommended to people, and we let people know when they’re about to join a Group that
has Community Standards violations. We limit invitation notifications for these groups, so
people are less likely to join.
For full details on Meta’s follow up to the Civil Rights Audit, see here.
d) Scale Facebook’s commitment to the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation to include
the Philippines.
Assessing feasibility.
We support multi-stakeholder, collaborative and iterative approaches that self-regulatory
initiatives — like the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation and the Australian Code ofPractice for Disinformation and Misinformation — facilitate. Such approaches strike areasonable balance between freedom of expression, safety and security, and provide aforum for ongoing dialogue between stakeholders to find answers and solutions as thedigital ecosystem evolves.

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Meta's approach to addressing misinformation and disinformation is global. It includes
our partnerships with third-party fact checkers, as well as our work to support andelevate sources of quality information, to address misrepresentation and the coordinateduse of fake accounts, and to prohibit misinformation in advertisements in accordancewith our Advertising Policies and Community Standards. We are actively exploring ways
to provide additional reporting on misinformation and disinformation.
e) Expand Ads Library to the Philippines to ensure transparency on political advertisements.
Implementing
We have made the Facebook Ad Library available in the Philippines to capture all live ads
and all ads known to be related to politics and elections.
As part of our ads transparency efforts, we require people who want to run an adtargeting the Philippines related to elections or politics to complete an identity
confirmation process and demonstrate they are located within the country. These
advertisers are then required to place a disclaimer on their ads about elections or politics.
These ads will be archived in the Ad Library for 7 years where anyone can find out more
information on the advertiser. We are intending to require authorization for social issue
ads from early 2022.
f) Update policies to forbid political ads that include disinformation on Meta’s platforms.5
This could include having political ads fact-checked by IFCN certified fact checkers before
they are approved for dissemination on Meta’s platform.
Implementing in partWe require advertisers to follow our Advertising Policies, in addition to our Community
Standards.

5

The Philippines HRIA defines as disinformation “content that gives the appearance of being factual and news-likebut actually relies on deliberate falsehoods to mislead and/or promote a political agenda. Objective falsehood is a key
component of the term.” NYU Stern (2017) “Harmful Content: The Role of Internet Platform Companies in Fighting
Terrorist Incitement and Politically Motivated Disinformation.”

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We prohibit ads containing claims that have been debunked by third-party fact checkers,
unless they consist of direct and unedited speech by politicians. (It is important to notethat our policy prohibiting misinformation that leads to imminent physical harm is still
applicable to politicians).
We do not allow third party fact checking on the direct and unedited speech of politiciansbecause we believe that by censoring the speech of politicians, we’d leave people lessinformed about what their candidates or elected officials say, and leave politicians lessaccountable for their words.
There will be some instances, however, where a rating from our fact-checking partners
will affect politicians. Specifically, when a politician shares a specific piece of content —e.g. a link to an article, video or photo created by someone else that has been previously
debunked on Facebook — we will reject its inclusion in ads. This is different from a
politician’s own claim or statement.
Our policies also prohibit voter interference in elections, including in ads. Examples ofprohibited content include misrepresentations of: who can vote; dates, times, andlocations of elections; and qualifications or materials required for voting.
We also prohibit ads that contain certain COVID-19 and vaccine claims that have been
debunked by global health organizations such as the CDC and World Health Organization,or claims from any advertisers that discourage people from vaccination or advocate
against vaccines.
Given the volume of advertising, and the difficulty of assessing often opinion-based
claims included in political and social issues advertising, it is not a viable or a desirable useof inherently limited fact-checking resources to have each political ad systematicallyassessed by a third-party fact checker for accuracy prior to approval.
Such an approach may also limit the journalistic independence of our fact-checking
partners, who are currently free to choose the claims they wish to assess. In practice, it
may also create an unintended bias against advertisers speaking about certain types ofissues or based in certain areas where fact-checking capacity is relatively limited.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment15g) Include state actors in the existing dangerous individuals and organizations policy.
Assessing feasibility
We will consider exploring related policy options as part of our global policy development
process.
h) Assess opportunities to expand fact-checking of political leaders beyond misinformationthat may result in imminent harm.
Implementing in partWe assess such opportunities on a continuous basis. For example, in 2020-21, we
expanded prohibitions against certain COVID-19, vaccine and electoral content, as notedin the paragraphs above. We also pioneered new methods of enforcing misinformation
policies and claim checking at scale in US, Myanmar and other elections. Our teams
preparing for the Philippines election will build from this work.
We are not considering additional community standards changes in this area at the timeof writing. Our approach to fact-checking is grounded in Meta's fundamental belief in free
expression, respect for the democratic process and the belief that political speech is themost scrutinized speech there is. Just as critically, by limiting political speech we would
leave people less informed about what their elected officials are saying — and leave
politicians less accountable for their words.
i)

Provide financial support to cover the cost of security and mental health support for fact
checkers at partner organizations.
Assessing feasibility
Meta has contributed more than $84 million to programs supporting our fact-checking
efforts since 2016, including support for debunking COVID-19 content, a mentorshipprogram, a Climate Misinformation Grant and an Accelerator to support fact-checkers'
businesses. We are always looking for additional ways to support fact-checking partners
based on their needs, and will consider options for mental health support as we plan for
the future. Fact checking partners who meet the relevant criteria also will be eligible toapply for our broader human rights defender and journalism safety initiatives.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessmentj)16

Expand existing misinformation and harm policy to include further categories ofhealth misinformation.
Implementing
Since the primary research for this HRIA was conducted, we have taken important steps
to expand and refine our policies around health misinformation.
In December 2020, we began removing misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, andsending notifications directly to anyone who has interacted with health misinformationthat was removed for violating our Community Standards. In February 2021, we also
expanded the list of COVID-19 misinformation claims we would take action on, in linewith guidance from global health authorities. In April 2021, we started removing
Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts that repeatedly violate our COVID-19 andvaccine policies.
Our Community Standards are a living document, meaning that we are constantly
evolving our policies to keep pace with changing online behaviours. Our teams will
actively explore additional policy changes related to health misinformation, taking into
account important freedom of expression, access to information, proportionality
considerations, and guidance from the Oversight Board.

k) Expand investment in digital literacy training and provide funding for journalism schools
in the Philippines.
Implementing
First, Meta has launched an expanded version of We Think Digital/Digital Tayo in thePhilippines. This includes interactive content on safety and privacy, and new modules onnews verification, community building and civic engagement. Digital Tayo continues togrow its partner roster adding more government agencies, youth organizations,non-government organizations and community-based groups.
Second, there is also ongoing work on integration of digital literacy into the learning
curriculum of pre-service tertiary and basic education teachers. We are also developing a

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Facebook and Messenger School Guide for students, teachers and home-based learningfacilitators that will provide key information on our Terms of Service and Community
Standards, coupled with best practices and safety and privacy tips to aid online learning,in partnership with the Philippine Department of Education and Stairway Foundation.
Third, we are also supporting a project with FYT, a community-oriented independent
media outfit, to train local/campus journalists on digital literacy, visual storytelling, andfact-checking in preparation for the 2022 general elections.
The Meta Journalism Project has also partnered with Reuters to launch a free online
digital journalism foundations training program. This includes modules on digital news
gathering, news verification and reporting, publishing on social media, and also wellness
and resilience training while reporting. More information about this partnership can befound here.
In June 2021, we published the Community Standards in Filipino, enabling Filipino users
to read the Community Standards in their native language.

2. Online Harassmenta) Enable and empower users to take control of their security and privacy by expanding andincreasing awareness of platform-based reporting functions, including through more
visible product tools.
Implementing
We have an extensive suite of product tools designed to empower people to address thepotentially negative impacts of unwanted contact. These vary across different apps, but
include the ability to unfriend, unlike, ignore, block, restrict and report. See our abuse
resources for more information.
Some examples include: on Instagram you can restrict comments from certain people on
your posts; the comments will only be visible to that person, or you can approve them to
be visible also to others. On Messenger you can ignore a conversation, turn off

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notifications for a conversation, delete a conversation or block the person from sending
you messages. On Facebook, you can add a friend to a restricted list, and they won’t see
posts you share only with friends.
We are committed to continually improving these tools. In March 2021 we also introduced“Choose Who Can Comment”, a product tool that allows Facebook app users to limit
commenting on profiles and pages to select audiences on their public posts. In August
2021, Instagram announced Limits, a set of features to help users more easily prevent
unwanted comments and DMs. These features are particularly relevant for creators andpublic figures who experience or may anticipate a rush of abusive comments or DMs.
We have matched these product-related steps with policy steps, outlined in section
d below.
b) In line with guidance from Amnesty International, “offer personalized information andadvice based on personal activity on the platform” (e.g., share guidance on privacy andsecurity settings when users make a report of violence and abuse). This guidance should
not contain private information, but rather direct users to resources and tools that canhelp mitigate future risks.
Implementing
We agree that providing tailored guidance within our apps is one of the best ways to help
people understand our policies and settings. In line with this recommendation, we provide
contextually-aware information on privacy, safety, and security features throughout the
Facebook app.
For example, when reporting a post for harassment, we also share one-tap options toblock or unfollow the user or page that made the post, as well as details on the relevant
portions of our Community Standards. When we consider a user may be particularly
vulnerable to security risks, we provide notifications encouraging them to turn on
two-factor authentication and other advanced protections.
We develop technology to fight behavior that threatens to keep women and vulnerable
users offline. We offer a number of tools to help people control their experience on

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Facebook, such as ignoring unwanted messages and blocking other people without them
being notified. Victims and their allies can also report violating behavior. Other tools
available in the Philippines include:●

Comment controls: You can control who can comment on your public posts bychoosing from a menu of options ranging from anyone who can see the post to
only the people and Pages you tag.

●Profanity filter on Facebook: You can block different degrees of profanity fromappearing on your Page. We determine what to block by using the most commonly
reported words and phrases marked offensive by the community.

In consultation with stakeholders, we’ll continue to explore additional opportunities toprovide such information, including to human rights defenders in the Philippines.
c) Strengthen policy measures against harassment, particularly the organization,
incitement, or coordination of harassment, against users.
Implementing
We updated our Community Standards to prevent calls for coordinating harassment in2020. We also launched a mass harassment/anti-brigading policy in August 2021, asignificant step in addressing this complex challenge.
To reduce the reach of those looking to use our platform for harmful purposes, we now
also make it harder to find and join Groups that violate our policies. In addition, whenGroup members have repeated violations, we now block them from being able to post orcomment for a period of time in any group, and prevent them from inviting others to anygroups, and creating new groups.
d) Adopt a “public interest” consideration, in place of a “public figures” consideration andprovide policy exceptions and product protections for at-risk public figures, including
human rights defenders (HRDs) and journalists.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

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Implementing
We launched multiple changes to our bullying and harassment policy in 2020-2021.
These included:●

Clarifying that most human rights defenders and journalists are “limited
public figures” with stricter policies prohibiting bullying and harassment thanpublic figures;●stronger protections against gender-based harassment and sexualization,
including of public figures; and●a new policy prohibiting certain mass harassment (“brigading”), including against
human rights defenders as defined by the United Nations.

We also launched highly relevant product protections, such as Facebook Protect and theNews Page Index and Journalist Registration.
●

Facebook Protect is an in-app security measure that provides eligible users moresecurity as they login and reduce the chance of unauthorized access to theiraccounts.

●

The News Page Index helps us identify Facebook Pages that primarily publish
news content. Publishers that are included may be eligible for products, policies
and programs that benefit news publishers. To be included, they must abide byguidelines we developed with news organizations, academics, and industry groups.
The News Page Index was launched in Filipino in November 2021.

●

Journalist Registration offers account security protections that help further
protect against online abuse. It is the beginning of Meta's efforts to better identify
and support journalists on our platform.

We have also funded the Human Rights Defender Fund and Journalist Safety Initiative,a pilot fund to support at-risk journalists and human rights defenders in the AsiaPacific region.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

21e) Consider partnering with UN agencies and civil society organizations to develop a
program to raise awareness of HRDs.
Implementing
Meta conducted briefings for Human Rights defenders on policies around data sharing
and Facebook’s Community Standards, as well as training on using Facebook fordigital advocacy.
In August 2021, we launched the Online Security and Resiliency Training for human rights
defenders with The Asia Foundation. The series aims to equip HRDs with knowledge on
how to stay safe and be more resilient online. It includes digital security, mental wellness,and community engagement. As of October 2021, we have trained 61 organizations (961
individuals trained). The series will continue in 2022.
We financially support several global response/advocacy mechanisms for HRDs, and will
actively explore global campaign options. There is also additional information on HRDs insection 4 below.

3. Incitement to Violencea) Formally adopt the Rabat Plan “six-part test” into Facebook’s Community Standards
implementation, specifically in relation to Violence and Incitement.
Implementing in part
Meta is actively exploring ways to incorporate learnings from the Rabat threshold test
into our policies. While the nuance of the test makes it operationally infeasible to directly
apply at scale, we have adapted them into two active content policy tools, including an
escalation-based framework on hate speech attacking concepts, not people (adopted2021), as well as an updated framework accounting for civil and human rights principles
to evaluate discussions of state use of force by governments against civil and humanrights principles.
The Human Rights Team also uses the test as a basis to advise on future policy
development.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

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In 2020, Meta worked with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights tohave the test translated and made available in 26 additional languages.
b) Explore opportunities to share platform insights (not specific user or content data) withaccountability or preventive bodies via Data for Good or other mechanisms.
Implementing
We note this HRIA response is one such method, as is our voluntary lawful disclosure to
the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, active from late 2019.
Our commitment to report human rights insights and actions, contained in our March
2021 corporate human rights policy, is a potentially significant opportunity to do so.
In addition, our Human Rights, Stakeholder Engagement and Public Policy teams
routinely informally discuss insights on broad content trends — including those related tosocial media and conflict and incitement to violence — with partners in the human rights
community, academia, and international organisations. In doing so, we seek to inform
policy development and enforcement, support rapid response, develop best practices andsupport accountability for human rights violations.
Our Transparency Center, launched in 2021, is a significant resource. Our Community
Standards Enforcement Report, updated quarterly, includes information on theprevalence of various types of harmful content over time and volumes of such content
removed. A range of public Facebook content is made available to academic, humanrights, and other stakeholders via Social Science One and CrowdTangle.
We financially supported, and participated in, related human rights multi-stakeholder
conversations related to documentation and disclosure in 2020 - 21.
We’ll actively explore additional ways to share additional insights and data with ourpartners, consistent with our privacy and other legal obligations.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

23

4. Surveillancea) Collaborate with civil society to advocate for the passing of the Human Rights
Defenders Bill.
Assessing feasibility
We are collaborating with civil society to encourage protections for HRDs, but passage ofthis bill is stalled.
b) Develop a standalone HRD policy and implement recommendations developed as part ofa Meta-commissioned HRD research assessment.
Implementing
We commissioned HRD-specific due diligence in 2020. As a result, our corporate humanrights policy (launched March 2021) specifically references the needs and risks of humanrights defenders. This will provide a strong policy basis for future work.
In addition, we have:●significantly revised our bullying and harassment policies (details in section 2
above)●

launched new restrictions on calling for or engaging in certain mass harassment●

created an HRD-specific cross-functional working group●

integrated defenders into our due diligence systems focused on
vulnerable/targeted groups, improving our ability to identify and launch relevant
product solutions, such as locked profile in Afghanistan and Myanmar;●

engaged more systematically with relevant UN special procedures●

launched the Human Rights Defenders’ and Journalists’ Fund. This is a two year
pilot fund in APAC, which, due to high digital penetration and other factors, is aregion with concentrated risk.

●

launched the Online Security and Resiliency Training for Human Rights Defenders
with The Asia Foundation in 2021 to equip HRDs with knowledge on how to staysafe and be more resilient online

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

24c) Co-develop technical tools with HRDs that work to protect their rights while on
Meta platforms.
Assessing feasibility
The human rights team is actively seeking to develop a more consistent set of
co-design opportunities.

5. Online Sexual Exploitationa) Use leverage with the government of the Philippines to expand protections against online
sexual exploitation of children.
Implementing
In line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we have actively
sought to support outreach, understanding and consultation around the drafting ofvarious online child safety bills which aim to address the issue of online sexual
exploitation of children and further define the duties of platforms and tech companies inaddressing related issues. This work has entailed, among other engagements, attendanceat various Technical Working Group meetings.
We also established active, ongoing coordination mechanisms with the Inter-Agency
Council Against Trafficking, Department of Justice, Department of ICT, and theDepartment of Education as well as NGO partners UNICEF, Plan International, Stairway
Foundation and Child Rights Network. This allows us to quickly respond to reports andcontinuously gather local insights and trends that will help us improve our policies, tools
and resources to better protect children online.
We review legal requests carefully and respond in accordance with applicable law. We
train and work extensively with law enforcement, including the Philippine National
Police’s (PNP) Anti-Cybercrime Group, the Women and Children's Protection Center andthe National Bureau of Investigation, including to provide training on how to efficiently
submit legal requests. We combat child online exploitation including working with thePhilippine National Police’s (PNP) Anti-Cybercrime Group, the Women and Children's
Protection Center and the National Bureau of Investigation, along with their foreign law

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

25

enforcement and NGO partners such as Homeland Security Investigations, theInternational Justice Mission and others.
We report apparent instances of child sexual exploitation appearing on our site fromanywhere in the world to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children(NCMEC), which then refers cases out to global law enforcement agencies: More details
can be found here.
In August 2019, we provided funds and engineering expertise to create the updated
NCMEC Case Management Tool. The tool is now available to law enforcement around theworld — including the Philippine Department of Justice — making it easier for them toaccess, prioritize and respond to reports of online child sexual exploitation.
Aside from the proactive work we do, we respond to formal legal compulsory requests
from Philippine law enforcement agencies for user data requests related to child
exploitation cases. We understand, however, that Philippine legal restrictions require local
law enforcement to first obtain a search warrant from a court to make a compulsory
request that would qualify for disclosure under Facebook’s Data Policy and US law. Given
that law enforcement must first initiate and complete court proceedings to be in aposition to make a legal compulsory request for data, there are a correspondingly low
number of requests for Facebook to process in this area.
In particular, if we have reason to believe a child is in immediate/imminent danger, we may
proactively refer a case to local law enforcement to help make sure the child isimmediately safeguarded.
We have also provided multiple training sessions to law enforcement agencies over theyears in the Philippines organized by the International Centre for Missing and ExploitedChildren and NCMEC.
We have a dedicated global team that supports law enforcement agencies in accordancewith our commitments as a member of the Global Network Initiative. The team operates
24/7, 365 days a year, from 15 sites around the world.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

26b) Commission a child rights impact assessment of Messenger Kids.
Assessing feasibility
Messenger Kids was developed specifically to meet child safety needs. Productdevelopment included extensive consultation with a team of global advisors andindependent experts in the fields of online safety, child development, and media fromorganizations such as the Family Online Safety Institute, Center on Media and Child
Health, MediaSmarts, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Fred Rogers
Center. In the Philippines, we consulted the Stairway Foundation, the Child Rights
Network, UNICEF and Plan International.
We will actively consider this recommendation while also focusing on future child-related
product development due diligence.
c) Evolve default privacy settings for minors (anyone under the age of 18) (multiple details).
Implementing in part
To protect minors, we have already put special safeguards in place, and will continue todo so.
We:●

require everyone to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account●set their accounts to share with ‘friends only’ by default●

take steps to prevent default audience options for posts from including ‘public’●

restrict the visibility of minors' profiles in public search, prevent public sharing ofcontent (including location, contact information, school or birthday and friend
lists)●

block adult-only features (e.g., Facebook Dating)●remind minors that they should only accept friend requests from people theyknow, and we do not allow unconnected adults to message minors●

use photo-matching technologies that help us detect, remove, and report thesharing of images and videos that exploit children○

These photo-matching technologies create a unique digital signature of animage or video (known as a “hash”) which is then compared against a

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

27

database containing signatures (hashes) of previously identified illegal
images to find copies of the same image. We use these technologies across
our public surfaces, as well as on unencrypted information available to us on
our private-messaging services, including user reports.
○

We also run these technologies on links from other internet sites shared on
our apps and their associated content to detect known child exploitationelsewhere on the internet. All violating content found is reported to the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which works with law
enforcement around the world.

●

use artificial intelligence and machine learning to proactively detect child nudityand previously unknown and new child-exploitative content, as well as
inappropriate interactions with children, sometimes referred to as “grooming”●

allow anyone — whether they use our services or not — to report suspectedunderage people on Instagram and Facebook. We have dedicated channels where
we review these accounts based on these or other reports.

In addition:●

minors and adults can also turn on Timeline Review to review posts they're tagged
in before the posts appear on their timeline. If a minor or anyone else is tagged insomething they don't like, they can remove the tag or ask the person to take thepost down.

●

to protect children’s image privacy rights, on Facebook, a parent or legal guardiancan request that we remove an image of their child under the age of 13 by fillingout this form. A young person between the ages of 13 and 18 can request weremove their image using this form.

d) Consider requiring children to review a child-friendly version of the Community Standards
when signing up for a Facebook account and develop child-friendly safeguarding tools,
including guidance on privacy settings, data collection and reporting of grooming.
Implementing in partWe are exploring the feasibility of child-friendly versions of the Community Standards
and/or related rules. In addition, we are working with the Department of Education andMeta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

28

the Stairway Foundation to develop a Facebook Safety Guide for Schools to support
school personnel, home-based learning facilitators, and learners in safely navigating
Facebook as a communication platform to share important school updates, information,
and announcements.
We have already developed child-friendly safeguarding tools, and will continue to do so.
For example: in May 2020 we introduced safety prompts in Messenger, which aresurfaced to minors before interacting with an adult who has been exhibiting potentiallysuspicious behavior. For example, if an adult is sending a large amount of friend or
message requests to people under 18, this tool alerts the recipients to be cautious wheninteracting with an adult they may not know, educates them on harassment andempowers them to ignore, block or report someone when something doesn’t seem right.
We launched a Youth Portal in our Safety Center in 2018, a central place for teens that
includes education on staying safe and first person accounts from teens around the worldabout how they are using technology in new and creative ways. It features tips on things
like security, reporting content, and deciding who can see what they share and someguidelines for how teens can get the most out of the internete) Consider launching a child online safety month or comparable effort to raise awareness ofrisks and tools through Meta’s platforms.
Implementing
As part of 2021 Safer Internet Day, we ran an online safety education campaign on
Facebook and Instagram from February to March 2021 that has been viewed over 18
million times. We worked in partnership with the Child Rights Network, Stairway
Foundation, Department of ICT and Called To Rescue to educate users on Facebook
privacy and security tips. Meta annually participates in Safer Internet Day activities.
We also continue to improve our in-app education about tools and resources to prevent
online child exploitation.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

29

Building on our current participation in other national child safety campaigns, at the timeof writing we were running the #ReportItDontShareIt campaign in partnership with theInter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), Child Rights Network and the Stairway
Foundation. The campaign raises awareness of the risks of sharing child sexual
exploitation material, promotes a shift in local attitudes, and encourages people to reportsuch content.

6. Traffickinga) Take efforts to exclude from Facebook search results content related to the sale ofhuman organs.
Implementing
We have updated proactive detection tools with the goal to reduce discoverability of
exploitative content and incorporate emerging trends in consultation with the Philippines
Department of Health and the National Kidney and Transplant Institute.
b) Update human exploitation policy to prohibit all sale of children, even in cases where thesale may be legally permissible.
Implementing
We have extensive language prohibiting multiple forms of human exploitation in our
existing policies. This has been updated to unambiguously prohibit all sales of children.
c) Conduct on-platform awareness-raising training related to the risks of illegal recruitment
and how to detect potentially exploitative content.
Implementing
In partnership with Stop The Traffik, we launched a Labor Trafficking/Domestic Servitude
Awareness Campaign in March 2021 to provide information to potential domestic
workers and low-skilled laborers about their legal rights, local recruitment guidelines foroverseas job applications and available helplines that would help them avoid illegal
recruitment and abuse.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

30

At the time of writing, we were building out an organ trafficking potential victim
awareness project to help educate potential victims of organ trafficking about risks andprovide resources, with a target launch in early 2022.
Our content review team and proactive detection technology uses English and Filipino
keywords to identify and remove content that may lead to human exploitation, including
specifically domestic servitude.
We developed these keywords based on consultations with expert organisations in thePhilippines, including the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, the Department of
Health, the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, the Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration, the Blas Ople Policy Center, the Department of Foreign Affairs and thePhilippine Overseas Employment Administration.

7. Extremist Activitya) Further invest in Moro language capabilities, particularly highlighting key terms in
Maranao, Maguindanaoan, and Tausug, to allow for more accurate, proactive review ofpotential terrorist content.
Assessing feasibility
At the time of writing, Meta has content moderation capacity in Cebuano and Filipino.
We’ll evaluate how to prioritize additional capacity based on our criteria for global
language prioritization and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
In addition:●

We’ve launched The Resiliency Initiative, a partnership between Meta and The Asia
Foundation, which aims to promote tolerance, strengthen interfaith andinter-ethnic understanding, and counter violent extremism by helping to build
resilient communities across APAC. The initiative delivers a range ofcapacity-building programs for civil society organizations to help develop localized
positive narrative campaigns online that aim to counter intolerance anddiscrimination. In 2020 the program reached over 60 organisations across 10
countries in Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

31

Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and India). In 2021, an online portal was launched tomake the information resources accessible to more communities and as of thiswriting, a new batch of organizations was lined up for training.
●

We have implemented the Boost Your Business training program in theBangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao for digital readinessand opening online economic opportunities for the local community, with
Bayan Academy.

8. Corporate Accountabilitya) Develop a standalone human rights policy to guide Meta’s approach to managing
human rights
Implementing
Meta’s corporate human rights policy was launched March 2021. It is also embedded in
Keep Building Better, the revised Meta code of conduct launched June 2021.
b) Consider adding an independent board member responsible for human rights and/or
establishing a human rights advisory board, similar to the Safety Advisory Board.
Assessing feasibility
Under our corporate human rights policy, salient human rights issues are periodicallyreported to the company Board of Directors. Meta has benchmarked business practicerelated human rights stakeholder advisory and consultation mechanisms, and will seek toimplement such a mechanism.
c) Build on transitional justice work to contribute to broader recognition of human rights
harms in countries with legacies of human rights abuses.
Implementing
Meta is actively incorporating transitional justice and principles into its policy,
communications and human rights work. Transitional justice experiences are highly
relevant to Meta and other social media companies because they often confront

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

32

systems-level challenges, and struggle with issues of scale, speed, and remedy.
d) Continue efforts to align with the Santa Clara Principles.
Implementing in part
The principles give excellent guidance. We will continue to work to align with theprinciples, but note content volumes are so large we cannot commit to human review for
all cases. Instead, we seek to prioritize based on severity of potential harm in a frameworkaligned to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
e) Formally integrate human rights expectations into the Responsible Innovation process,requiring that all “high risk products” undergo a human rights review.
Implementing in part
We have aligned Responsible Innovation (RI) principles with human rights guidance, but
the process mentioned above has been deprecated. We will take further steps tointegrate human rights guidance into RI product risk management processes.
f) Assess which specific aspects of Meta’s business model are more or less likely toimpact human rights adversely and develop mitigation measures based on theassessment results.
Assessing feasibility
Our human rights policy requires us to know our salient human rights risks. We aredeveloping our salient risk framework across the company, which is an important
precursor to this work.

9. Updated HRIA Recommendations (from September 2021)
a) Initiate/expand information sharing on user engagement with COVID misinformation.
This data can help independent researchers understand how misinformation is spreadand the efficacy of mitigation tactics.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

33

Implementing
We are convening two dedicated workshop series with leading misinformation, safety andexpression experts to advise us on best practice research and thinking on effectiveness of
misinformation enforcement, one of them focused on the Asia-Pacific region. We willconsider opportunities to share related knowledge.
b) Increase efforts to combat disinformation and misinformation in the Philippines,
including:○onboarding new third-party fact checkers to ensure sufficient resourcing toaddress disinformation in advance of the upcoming elections○

applying Meta’s heightened penalties for public figures who violate Facebook’s
Community Standards

Implementing
As part of our preparation for the Philippines election, we are already expanding
our support and training for the local fact checking community, in line with the
IFCN Principles.
We have also created additional means to strengthen enforcement of misinformation
policies (including, among others, voter interference and misinformation that leads to realworld harm).
Our policy of heightened penalties against public figures who violate the Community
Standards during periods of civil unrest is global, and thus will be applied when policy
criteria are met. More details here.
Locally, the following programs have also been put in place:●

We continue to implement our Digital Tayo training to youth andcommunity-based groups, government agencies, and civic organizations
nationwide. In 2021, we have nine new partners — building up our partner roster to52 government and non-government organizations. Additionally, we haveconducted training on Meta Community Standards to civic and elections-relatedorganizations.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment●

34

We are supporting a project with FYT, a community-oriented independent media
outfit, to train local and student journalists on digital literacy, visual storytellingand fact-checking in preparation for the 2022 general elections.

●

In partnership with local civic organizations, we will implement a series of
information activities and campaigns on media literacy and digital discernment in
the run up to the elections.

●

In 2021, we launched the Youth Leaders Incubators Program in partnership withOut of The Box Media Literacy and Mano Amiga to build a civic learning
opportunity for Filipino youth that aspire to spark social impact in theircommunities and to encourage youth participation in the socio-political discoursein the lead up to the elections. Ten incubated youth organizations are taking part inan eight-month program that includes social media training, mentoring andtechnical assistance.

c) Increase capacity to address red-tagging, including: building awareness among local civilsociety of Meta’s red-tagging policies, expanding the trusted partner program, and taking
steps to review red-tagged content in a timely manner, consistent with the threat of life.
Implementing
We seek to continue our strong work prohibiting content that outs specific at risk groups,
including red-tagging. The latter is an adversarial practice with constantly evolving
dynamics, present across the entire media ecosystem. We will continue to adapt ourhandling practices as content dynamics evolve.
We are working to expand our Trusted Partner network prior to the 2022 national
elections, and to expand their awareness of relevant policies.
We also continue to engage with the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, as well asother local rights organizations. The Online Security and Resilience Training for Human
Rights Defenders, a training program with The Asia Foundation, is also currently being
implemented.
d) Increase the capacity to mitigate the prevalence of online sexual exploitation and humantrafficking on Meta platforms, including:Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment○35

investing greater resources in the prevention of child exploitation and sharing ofchild sexual abuse material (CSAM) in unencrypted spaces○

investigating new methods and technologies to address the spread of CSAM in
encrypted spaces, while still respecting the right to privacy and other human rights○

expanding approaches to identify and limit dangerous engagements that could
result in exploitation

Implementing
We lead the industry in our work to prevent and disrupt the sharing of CSAM on both ourencrypted and unencrypted services. We will continue to invest deeply in this space,including by expanding our work on identifying and limiting potentially exploitativeinteractions with children. We are already deploying industry-leading methods andare seeking to pioneer new ones, to help address the potential spread of CSAM in
encrypted spaces.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

36

APPENDIX

Detailed Summary of Efforts Undertaken 2017 - 2021
We appreciate the observations in this HRIA, and have used its recommendations to strengthen
our human rights risk management.
This section, which adds to the action steps outlined in the main body of this document, gives an
overview of the work we’ve done since 2017 to support users in and from the Philippines. We
hope it will be useful in showing the development, over time, of key Meta initiatives, policies
and programs.
These efforts were focused on digital citizenship, elections preparedness, economic inclusion,
support for journalists and human rights defenders, mental health resources, policy
improvements, scaling safety and security, fighting misinformation and cybersecurity
enforcement.
Importantly, from March 2021 this work is now underpinned by Meta’s Corporate Human
Rights Policy.

I.

Digital Citizenship

Building up people’s ability to use online services like Facebook responsibly helps ensure thatthe internet can be both safe and open. Of course, it remains our responsibility to help people
use our products and platforms in a way that benefits them and their communities.
Some of our digital citizenship efforts:●

Annually hosting the first Philippines Digital Youth Summit, a three-day youth leadershipthat helps young people with skills to build online campaigns about digital literacy,
empathy, and critical thinking.

●Partnering with Globe’s Digital Thumbprint program to help students and teachers build
news literacy.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment●

37

Working with civil society and government partners to launch the Digital Tayo program —a digital literacy and digital parenting training program for outbound overseas Filipino
workers, students, parents, public school teachers, HRDs and LGBTQ+ communities.
Since its launch, we’ve trained over 400,000 Filipinos in-person. Throughout the
COVID-19 pandemic, Digital Tayo shifted to online training and resources, which havebeen viewed and accessed by over 5 million Filipinos across various social channels fromMarch 2020 through April 2021. This includes LGBTQ+ organizations that we trained on
digital literacy, and on modules on privacy and safety, responsibility and empathy. In
addition, we also trained civil society organizations, including LGBTQ+ organizations, on
how to use Facebook to develop their advocacy and information campaigns.

●

Implementing digital advocacy training and digital safety training seminars for
non-governmental organizations, including human rights defenders.

●

Launching the Meta Government Digital Transformation Summit, which trained
governmental public information officers and relevant staff on maximizing use of
Facebook for public service advisories, and on Meta’s Community Standards (2019and 2020).

II.

Elections Preparedness

We provided support in the 2019 midterm elections, and are currently preparing for thepresidential elections in 2022, building from our local and global experience.
●

In 2019, we provided support for the local elections through voter registration andElection Day reminders, partnerships with the Commission on Elections and electionsorganisations, conducted briefings as well as page management and community
standards training for the Commission on Elections, National Movement for Free
Elections (NAMFREL), Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), and theLegal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE).

We also hosted more than 60 members of the Filipino media for an election workshop toincrease the quality of related content on-platform.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment38

Our integrity work in removing coordinated inauthentic behavior networks, promoting digital
literacy and tackling misinformation on the platform (please see respective sections) were partof the broader approach to the Philippines elections.
Building on this, we have doubled our efforts for the 2022 general elections. In addition to
implementing and improving on what we have done in 2019, we have launched various programs
that included new modules in Digital Tayo focusing on civic education, an expanded Digital Tayoand elections Trusted Partner network, as well as the Philippine Fact Checker Incubator
program.
We are also implementing the Ads Transparency Library and have conducted briefings to civilsociety organizations, media and the Commission on Elections.
We’ll make further announcements in the run up to 2022, which include local engagements,
campaigns and partnerships.

III.

Economic Inclusion

We’re helping people use our platforms to build and sustain businesses and livelihoods. Meta
and its platforms are powerful tools for small businesses who don’t have access to the samekinds of advertising tools and resources that large businesses do. Small businesses use
Facebook and Instagram to start their businesses, build brand awareness and promote new
products. These apps also help them attract and build relationships with customers. By helping
small businesses succeed, we can help entire communities improve their access to otherresources, as well.
Our approach to date:●We’ve launched Facebook Community Boost, a training program in digital marketing
training for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and digital advocacy
training for NGOs in three cities (Manila, Cebu, Dumaguete). This training included
modules on digital literacy and the Meta Community Standards. In total, Community
Boost, alongside #SheMeansBusiness trained a total of 18,112 MSMEs in 2019.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment●

39

We’re continuously providing digital marketing and financial literacy upskilling training
for small businesses in the Philippines in partnership with Bayaan Academy,
Connected Women and selected government agencies. Together, we’ve launched
She Means Business, a digital marketing training program aimed at women and
Boost with Facebook, a similar program designed for small businesses. We have beenrunning these programs since 2017.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, the importance of our ongoing efforts of helping small
businesses increased as well. And thus, Boost with Facebook (formerly Boost your Business)
was updated to include modules on business resiliency, financial planning and mental health.
She Means Business was updated to include financial education, resiliency, and access to capitalfor women (promoting inclusion and economic opportunities). Despite the limitations put inplace by the pandemic, we were able to train over 8,000 local MSMEs in 2020.

IV.

Mental Health Resources

Over the past few years, we’ve undertaken a series of efforts to improve access to mental healthresources, particularly for the LGBTQ+ community in the Philippines. We partnered with thetech-worker advocacy group Pride@Tech — as well as other tech companies and the mental
health tech startup MindNation — to offer free psychological consultations, reaching over 2
million people who identify as LGBTQ+. In October 2020, we held a community chat streamedon Facebook Live, together with #MentalHealthPH, to raise awareness about the mental healthresources and safety tools available on Facebook.

V.

Policy Improvements

Meta has an extensive policy development and improvement process that helps ensure we
continue to take local context into consideration when writing and enforcing our policies. In thePhilippines, we have paid careful attention to local context and worked with local experts andNGOs to refine our global rules, such as academics from the University of Philippines, the Legal
Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE), and the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA).

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

40

Some improvements to date:●

Creating context-specific content policies in 2017 aimed at mitigating the risk of ‘outing’people based on certain individual characteristics. This was an early effort to combat
what would come to be known as red-tagging. In 2019, improving our policies against
outing of individuals based on additional characteristics.

●

Strengthening our policies against gender-based bullying and harassment, and updating
our hate speech policies to prohibit gendered cursing.

●

Updating our policies to address challenges posed by the proliferation of empty accounts
with prolonged dormancy. We updated the Account Integrity and Authentic Identity
portions of our Community Standards, and are developing product tools to continue toidentify and remove such accounts.

●

Launching important new policies against bullying and harassment, including a policy
against mass harassment, as well as increased protection for human rights defenders,journalists, and female public figures.

●VI.

Launching the Meta Community Standards in Filipino.

Scaling Safety and Security

In order to effectively enforce our policies, we have undertaken extensive efforts over the past
few years to increase the number of people working on trust, safety and security globally, andfor the Philippines, as well as scale up algorithmic efforts. Today, we have more than 40,000
people working on safety and security globally.
Some of our efforts to date:●

In 2018, we expanded staffing in the Asia-Pacific region, recruited a local public policy
and communications team in the Philippines and informed our Community Standards
development process by working closely with local stakeholders.

●

We formalized partnerships with local, non-governmental and civil society organizations,known as Trusted Partners, that can alert us to and provide us with additional context
about emerging issues. In 2019, we expanded our Philippines-related content review
workforce, adding capacity in Cebuano.

●

We invested in Filipino-specific artificial intelligence tools related to hate speech and childsafety, enabling us to better detect and prevent platform abuse.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment●

41

In one specific enforcement action, we removed a network of 95 Pages and 39 accounts
for violating our spam and authenticity policies. These accounts had names like Duterte
Media, Duterte sa Pagbabago BUKAS, DDS, Duterte Phenomenon, DU30 Trending
News, Hot Babes and others. 4.8 million people followed at least one of these pages, all ofwhich linked to the same adfarm.

●

We significantly expanded our specialized global teams working on cybersecurity andmisinformation. And we established a team — spanning product, engineering, policy,
research, and operations — to proactively prevent platform abuse in countries at risk of
conflict. These efforts improved our ability to minimize abuses on the platform while also
respecting people’s fundamental rights to free expression and association.

●

We enabled a comment warning on Instagram that encouraged people to pause before
posting potentially hurtful comments.

●

We strengthened practical support for our child safety efforts, including by funding
development of and supporting access to National Center for Missing & ExploitedChildren’s (NCMEC) case management tool for local law enforcement agencies, making iteasier for them to prioritize and respond to reports of child sexual exploitation, includingin the Philippines.

●

We updated our artificial intelligence tools to better detect content using local language
terms relating to the sexual exploitation of children. This change helped us more rapidly
review content.

●

We improved safety and privacy for children when we launched Messenger Kids, an app
to allow kids to use video and chat functions in a parent-controlled environment. To
prevent unwanted contacts in messenger we also created Messenger Safety Tips andlaunched campaigns and partnerships with the Child Rights Network and Stairway
Foundation, including developing child safety GIF storybooks.

●

We sought to increase action, awareness and enforcement on other human exploitation
issues, including organ trafficking and domestic servitude. Our efforts included
roundtable sessions with the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, the Department
of Health, the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, the Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration, the Blas Ople Policy Center, the Department of Foreign Affairs and thePhilippine Overseas Employment Administration.

Meta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

VII.

42

Fighting Misinformation

During the period under assessment, Meta took multiple actions to fight misinformation, bothglobally and in the Philippines. These included skills-focused efforts aimed at helping the public
identify misinformation when they see it, as well as efforts to label, demote, and remove
misinformation related to COVID-19. We also set up third party fact-checking programs, andimplemented capacity building programs for the fact checking community in the Philippines,
and globally. This is also a focus area of our digital literacy training program, Digital Tayo.
Some specifics on our efforts:●

Adopted (and later expanded) a global policy to remove verifiable misinformation at riskof contributing to imminent physical harm. This policy applies to all content, including thedirect and unedited speech of politicians.

●

Established a Philippines third party fact checking program in partnership with global
news agency Agence France Press and local media groups Rappler and Vera Files. The
program, certified by the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network, enables
independent fact checkers to rate and review the accuracy of content on the platform,
thus helping us combat viral misinformation.

●

Partnered with The Asia Foundation to launch The Resiliency Initiative, a counterspeecheffort against terrorism, violent extremism, and hate.

●

Sought to combat COVID-19 misinformation, with the onset of the global pandemic in
2020, while continuing our long term work. In particular, we:○launched the Misleading Manipulated Video policy, which prohibits “deep fake”
videos that distort reality and are highly misleading○

published guidelines to apply our Misinformation and Harm policy to remove
COVID-19 and vaccine related misinformation○

established a global COVID-19 Information Hub that included local partners andsources of information as well as a Philippines specific COVID-19 Messenger Bot
with the Department of Health (known as “KIRA”)○

provided digital advocacy training for the Department of Health to supplement
their online efforts in raising public awareness about COVID-19○

provided ad credits to help promote the agency’s campaign and announcements

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provided ad credits to the Philippine Red Cross, the Philippine Disaster Resilience
Foundation and UNICEF Philippines for their own COVID-19 campaigns●

Globally, we slowed down the sharing of frequently forwarded messages in Messenger
and WhatsApp, an effective way to slow down the spread of viral misinformation andcontent that has the potential to cause offline harm.

●

We also strengthened penalties against users who repeatedly share misinformation.

●

We have also expanded our support to Philippines fact checking groups. Internews,
supported by Meta, launched the Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator Program in 2021 tosupport six new fact-checking organizations ahead of the 2022 Philippine general elections.

●

Meta also launched a global accelerator amongst our fact-checking community. It brings
fact-checking organizations together to innovate, learn, and collaborate on new
strategies to improve their business — on and off Facebook.

VIII. Cybersecurity Enforcement

We’ve taken a number of actions to enforce our cybersecurity policies, including taking specific
enforcement actions, and removing networks violating our policy against coordinatedinauthentic behavior (CIB).
The first action was in January 2019, when we banned Twinmark Enterprises, a digital marketinggroup in the Philippines that repeatedly violated our misrepresentation and spam policies —including through CIB, the use of fake accounts, leading people to ad farms and selling access toFacebook Pages to artificially increase distribution and generate profit.
The second took place in March 2019, when we removed 200 Pages, Groups, and accounts
linked to a network organized by former Duterte campaign social media director, Nicanor
Gabunada Jr.
In September 2020, we removed two separate networks (among others) for violating our policy
against CIB . One originated in China, focused on audiences in the Philippines, Southeast Asiaand the United States;the second originated from politically affiliated actors in the Philippines,
and focused on domestic audiences.

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For more insight into our global cybersecurity enforcement and learning, please see Meta’s
recent cybersecurity reporting including our May 2021 Threat Report: The State of Influence
Operations 2017-2020.

IX.

Support for Journalists and Human Rights Defenders

Meta recognizes human rights defenders, including journalists, are a high risk user group. This
recognition is part of our corporate human rights policy, adopted in March 2021.
Some of our efforts to date:●

In 2019, we launched the Facebook Journalism Project. This is an initiative withpublishers around the world to strengthen the connection between journalists and thecommunities they serve. In the Philippines in particular, the Facebook Journalism Project
supported Tsek.Ph in partnership with local organizations, fact-checkers and universities.

●

In 2020, we continued our ongoing work with journalists and news organizations to train
them in best practices for optimizing digital skill sets and business practices. Offerings
included bootcamps in Community Standards, business analytics and strategies, an
executive leadership program, as well as scaled training in mobile journalism.

●

In 2021, we launched the Online Security and Resiliency Training for Human Rights
Defenders, a training program with The Asia Foundation focusing on digital security,
mental health and community engagement.

●

We also sought to improve journalist and human rights defender safety by:●introducing stronger security features via the Journalist Registration program●

briefing Human Rights defenders on Meta’s Community Standards and data
sharing policies●●

training defenders on using Facebook for digital advocacy

We have also committed to expanding our protections for journalists in the Asia-Pacificregion who are often at risk because of their work. This includes support of a new online
learning program with the International Center for Journalists (IFCJ). This program will beavailable in the coming months.

●

This support is complemented by our pilot Human Rights Defender Fund and Journalist
Safety Initiative, launched in partnership with Civil Rights Defenders and theMeta Response: Philippines Human Rights Impact Assessment

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International Center for Journalists. The project will give offline assistance to humanrights defenders, including journalists, facing critical threats and support new digital
security efforts, beginning in Asia. The fund may be used for a range of support including
but not limited to technology and devices, safety and protection software, emergency
legal and safety support — to those individuals targeted as a result of their activities in
defense of human rights. This project also includes support for a new e-learning programwith the ICFJ and online safety resources specifically for journalists who are at risk. These
resources will be available in early 2022.
●

Other support for journalists includes programs such as the Reuters Digital Journalism
Foundations course and the Facebook Fundamentals for Newsrooms, that includes
training on staying safe across social media and on our platforms. Recently, we alsoannounced our partnership with the Rory Peck Trust to help freelance journalists globally.