Community journalist Cong Corrales today filed a complaint before the National Privacy Commission (NPC) against Meta (formerly Facebook) for its alleged failure to observe his data subject rights.

Corrales alleged that Meta failed to observe his right to access when it denied his request for information on Facebook accounts that had red-tagged Corrales. Corrales needed the information to identify the people behind the Facebook accounts and hold them accountable.

Under Sec. 16 (c) of the Data Privacy Act of 2012, or RA 10173, a data subject has the right to “reasonable access, upon demand, of the names and addresses of the recipients of [his] personal information.”

Meta, in response to a letter from Corrales, had taken down the red tagging posts but said it needed “legal processes” to comply with the request for information.

In an earlier case, BGM v IPP (NPC 19-653), the NPC had ruled that the right of access may be exercised without the need for a court order, particularly when the information is needed to identify the perpetrator and establish one’s legal claims.

“This case aims to exact accountability from social media platforms,” Atty. Tony La Viña, one of Corrales’ lawyers said. Cong had been red-tagged many times in the past, and was even considered as the “most red-tagged journalist in Mindanao” back in 2019. La Viña lamented that many of his other clients had also been red-tagged but could not do anything because they could not identify the perpetrators, who hid behind fake Facebook names and accounts.

“This will benefit other journalists and truthtellers who have been red-tagged. We are confident that we have a strong basis for this case,” said Atty. Rico Domingo, lead counsel. La Viña and Domingo are two of the founders and lead convenors of the Movement Against Disinformation (MAD), a broad non-partisan coalition that pushes back against the unregulated and systematic spread of disinformation online.

“I hope this legal step will encourage other victims of red-tagging and those whose rights have been wronged through Facebook to seek legal remedies,” Corrales said.