Facebook: Sara’s account locked due to hacking attempts

Social media company Facebook is helping Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte regain access to her account after it was locked due to multiple hacking attempts.

In a statement yesterday, the company said Duterte’s account was placed on a security checkpoint after their systems detected suspicious attempts to gain access to it.

Davao City public information officer Jefry Tupas, in a Facebook post, said the company also reached out to them to clarify the lockdown of the mayor’s account.

“Facebook denied it purged Mayor Inday Sara Duterte’s account, BUT – it admitted it took it down, saying they monitored ‘strong signs that there were attempts to hack your account, we have placed it in a hack lock,’” wrote Tupas.

“Please be assured your account has nothing to do with the takedowns we conducted last week, as your (information officer) has mentioned in his posts and press. We understand his concern but please know that this was a protected measure implemented on the platform,” he added, quoting Facebook’s statement sent to them.

Tupas chided the company over the statement, saying Facebook stopped short of asking for gratitude over its act.

Quoting Duterte, he said the company can do anything with the accounts anyway as it is a private business.

Tupas earlier claimed that Duterte’s Facebook account was among those taken down by the company as part of a purge that affected at least 200 accounts, pages and groups.

The takedown involved a network engaged in prohibited coordinated inauthentic behavior, which involves the use of fake accounts to mislead other users.

Facebook alleged that the network was connected to communication strategist Nic Gabunada, one of the social media strategists of President Duterte in the 2016 elections.