Facebook suspends account of anti-Mocha Uson petitioner

MANILA, Philippines – The creator of a petition on Change.org calling for the blog of celebrity Mocha Uson to be suspended on Facebook has received reprisals online, primarily from people who sought out his personal Facebook account and reported it. 

The reports, petitioner Paul Quilet said on a note on the petition page, apparently caused his own Facebook account to be suspended at around 10:30 pm of Monday, October 24. 

The petition, which as of this writing has 30,755 supporters, claims Uson, a supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte, “uses her Facebook page to spread fictitious and false information about pressing issues in the Philippines” and “widens the rift between those who support the current administration and those who are critical of it.”

In a recent update on the petition, Quilet said “Everyone is free to express what they want. But problems arise when this fundamental right is used to manipulate and condition the public, when it is exploited to serve anyone’s purpose, when it is used as a shield against accountability.”

Quilet also said the issue of petitioning to close Mocha Uson’s blog was “not just about Mocha Uson.”

Instead, he explained, this was a “war against ignorance and against our twisted and malevolent view of human rights.” His petition, though, has sparked a fierce debate on free speech.

Quilet’s Facebook account remained suspended as of posting. – Rappler.com