Senator Nancy Binay cited her involvement in politics and the campaign season as the most likely reason for the recent hacking of her personal Facebook account.
Binay, who’s running under the United Nationalist Alliance party, said Facebook disabled her personal account three times in April.
“We had to contact Facebook and explain to them that this account is my personal account and that hackers changed the name and email address of my account,” she said.
The latest notification from Facebook was on May 1. She had also been receiving messages of people attempting to login to her account.
Given the timing of the incidents, Binay believes these have something to do with her bid for reelection.
“Alam naman natin na campaign season ngayon at malaking tulong ang social media sa kampanya. Nakakatakot lang kasi nakailang attempts na this month to hack my personal account,” she said.
“Yung timing din kasi parang may koneksyon sa mga naging pahayag ko on certain issues. I’m not sure if this has something to do with local politics, or dahil tumatakbo ako for reelection in the Senate,” she added.
Binay’s siblings, Junjun and Abby, recently figured in a scuffle at an electoral forum inside San Ildefonso Parish in Makati.
The event was attended by their father, former Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is himself running for representative for the first district of Makati.
Junjun and Abby are both running for the highest post of local governance in Makati City, home to a booming business district.
Of this, the eldest of Binay’s children denied that personal issues were involved in the conflict.
“This has nothing to do with our personal issues. This is, for me, iyung service that our Makati residents deserve,” the senator said.
Disabled accounts
According to Facebook, accounts will be disabled if it has violated rules stated in its terms and conditions.
Violations include posting content that doesn’t conform to the platform’s regulations, using a fake name, impersonating someone or continuing behavior that’s not allowed on Facebook by violating its Community Standards.
Users may submit a request form to Facebook to restore his or her account.
“Keep in mind that in some cases we may not issue a warning before disabling your account. We can’t restore accounts that were disabled for severe violations of the Facebook Community Standards,” Facebook said.