An organization advocating for motorcycle owners’ rights slammed several Facebook pages for using a photo of one of their events and passing the photo off as a photo of “DDS Riders.”
A certain Jobert Christian Bolanos, with a Facebook name Yob JB Bolanos, one of the members of the Motorcycle Rights Organization, addressed the Facebook pages’ of their event photo to claim that several bikers took to the road to support President Rodrigo Duterte in the days leading up to the September 21 rally by the opposition.
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“The admins/owners of these accounts/pages/groups are allowing the use of such photo/information to mislead/malign others and are collectively ignoring our plea to remove our event photo that is not in any way or form, part of “DDS RIDERS,”” Bolanos wrote on the organization’s Facebook page on September 21.
“With that said, our complaint shall include the admins/moderators/owners from these accounts/groups/pages who have failed to see the legal implications of the misuse of our event photo for political purposes,” he said.
He condemned the pages for sharing fake news using their photo.
“Allowing the proliferation of this FAKE NEWS at our expense is the same as perpetrating the illegal use of our event photo,” Bolanos said.
He warned the admins of the Facebook pages of legal action from the organization.
“They have been warned yet they chose to ignore us then so be it. We have no choice but to take legal action on this matter,” he added.
The pages he called out for misusing the biker organization’s photo include:
- Rodrigo Duterte 16th President
- Alan Peter Cayetano Supporters
- Scot North
- Unofficial: Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa Solid Supporters
- A certain Reden Rocero sharing the photo to the Facebook group President Rody Duterte-Federal Movement International
On September 20, Bolanos has warned Rocero and those who misused his organization’s photo to stop using it for political purposes. He added that the photo was taken during an event that was not politically related.
“This is an event organized and conducted by riders promoting road safety in May 2015,” he said.
“We, the participants and organizers of the event in this photo are not riding for POLITICAL AGENDA!”
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He requested the individuals and Facebook admins who were sharing the photo to take it down or risk getting a complaint filed against them.
“Please take down your post or remove our photo as you do not have permission to use it or depict this event as a political movement. Please do what we ask before we take legal action against you,” Bolanos wrote.
“You have 24 hours before we file a complaint with the cyber crime division of the PNP and NBI. Whether you are uploading or sharing the photo, it makes no difference. We will file a cyber crime complaint againts you,” he added.
He also included links to prove that the photo of the long line of bikers was actually that of their organization.
He shared the link to the original announcement about the event on April 20, 2015.
Bolanos also posted the link to the original source of the photo.
The photo was originally captioned, “Advocate motorcycle riders participate on a motorcade in an attempt to set a new world record along Roxas boulevard in Manila. In commemoration of United Nations-World Health Organization ‘A Decade of Action for Road Safety (DARS)’, thousands of motorcycle riders gathered in Manila to set a new Guiness Book of World Records for ‘Largest Motorcycle gathering in a Road Safety event’.”
Pierre Tito Galla, one of the founders of Democracy.Net.PH, said that Bolanos has a “cause of action” since intellectual property infringement is a “cybercrime.”
Some of the pages identified by Bolanos have not taken down the photo as of September 28. We also found other Facebook users and pages sharing the photo.
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