MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – Almost a week after Maria Ressa was found guilty of cyber libel, Facebook announced that it was dropping Rappler as one of the designated fact checkers for the social media giant in the Philippines. (The other FB fact checker is Vera Files.)
In a FB Messenger chat with The Adobo Chronicles, Mark Zuckerberg said that he could no longer justify Ressa and her online outfit being a designated fact checker when she herself has been found guilty of manufacturing facts. “It makes no sense,” Zuckerberg said.
But not all is lost for Rappler. Ressa revealed that she just signed a new contract with a Russian firm for Rappler to be a face checker for the online app, FaceApp.
FaceApp has gained notoriety in the last few weeks because of its new online tool which netizens can use to find out how they would look like as the opposite gender.
Rappler’s task is to make sure that netizens are uploading their own authentic photos to FaceApp, and not photos of other people.