There’s a long list of nations that routinely curtail internet freedoms. Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Burma, North Korea; even Europe is currently looking to get in on the online freedom-restricting game. And, of course, you can’t even mention the subject without nodding to China and its vast regimen of internet censorship. But the Philippines may have just become the first nation to democratically enshrine laws that can send you to jail for Liking something on Facebook.Here’s how it works, according to CBS News:On Sept. 12, President Benigno Aquino III signed into law the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which defines several new acts of crimes committed online, including, among others, “cybersex,” identity theft, hacking, spamming, and pornography. But while all that’s good, certain provisions of the law have millions of Filipinos up in arms – foremost of which is online libel.
“If you click ‘like,’ you can be sued, and if you share, you can also be sued,” said Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, one of the lawmakers who voted against the passage of the law. “Even Mark Zuckerberg can be charged with cyber-libel.”As is the case with even the most well-intentioned laws aimed at restricting online content, the parameters outlined here are so vague that they leave ample room for heavy-handed abuse from authorities. And in this case, it’s patently ridiculous — online libel? What is the internet but a bunch of disembodied voices talking shit about each other on various platforms? The Philippines apparently plans on incarcerating entire YouTube comment sections.The language sounds disturbingly similar to the kind routinely deployed by corrupt institutions — and the Philippines is corrupt. Hell, it has its own Wikipedia page: Corruption in the Philippines. Perhaps the nation’s police force also plans on tracking down the page’s contributors who wrote that “[a]ccording to a World Bank study in 2008, corruption in the Philippines is considered to be the worst among East Asia’s leading economies and the country has sunk even lower among those seen to be lagging in governance reforms.”Sounds like online libel to me. While we’re at it, better haul in the authors of that World Bank study, too, since it’s printed and referenced online. You can’t talk shit about the Filipino government like that, World Bank. Not anymore. Strangely, despite rampant corruption in most other areas, before this new law, Filipinos enjoyed the most internet freedom in Asia, and the 6th most in the world, according to one study.This should give you an idea of how well-crafted this law is: The senator who inserted the libel language, Vicente Sotto III, defended it simply by telling a local news outfit “Yes, I did it. I inserted the provision on libel. Because I believe in it and I don’t think there’s any additional harm.” Oh yeah, and not too long ago, he was the victim of major backlash from the Filipino online community, which called him out ripping off speeches from the late Robert Kennedy and plagiarizing American bloggers.In other words, Sotto’s legislation might as well be called the ‘make people stop saying mean things about me on the internets’ act of 2012. And for now, they may have to. They’ll even have to stop ‘Liking’ any of their friends comments that nod towards mean things. Otherwise, the most corrupt nation in East Asia could haul them off to jail.
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