Facebook's "like" may land Filipinos in jail | Hacker News Reader

Facebook's "like" may land Filipinos in jail

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8 pointsMojoJolo6 comments

This is the law in question if anyone wants to read it:

http://www.gov.ph/2012/09/12/republic-act-no-10175/

The relevant sections that are causing most of the the ruckus:

Section 4(c)(4) (PUNISHABLE ACTS):

(4) Libel. — The unlawful or prohibited acts of libel as defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended, committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.

Section 19 (ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION):

SEC. 19. Restricting or Blocking Access to Computer Data. — When a computer data is prima facie found to be in violation of the provisions of this Act, the DOJ shall issue an order to restrict or block access to such computer data.

The Senator Guingona in the article published more of his thoughts here: http://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/13041-gagging-the-com...

As a Filipino myself, I guess the president didn't completely understand what act he's signing. Additionally, cyber-libel inserted in the very last minute is not a very good practice. To take the fact that he's the senator that did some plagiarism and got what he called as "cyber bullied" by the online community.

Oops! I think what I said is enough. I might be charged with cyber-libel with this statement.

The fact that I upvoted you means I might get charged as well. Hooray!

Are you based in the Philippines? Short of taking to the streets or "joining" Anonymous Philippines, what can we do as regular Juans?

Yes, I'm based here in the Philippines. Taking it to the streets may not be a good idea. We are talking a technology issue here and going to the streets is not appropriate and "hi-tech". As a regular Juan, I do not advise joining Anonymous Philippines. They are a set of trained hackers and a regular Juan might just destroy them. I respect them, but let's just let them do it and leave it that way.

What a regular Juan can do is protest via social network (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). It's a more high tech version of going to the streets. Spread awareness and campaign. Educate others for it is all about. Educate the politicians of what they are doing.

I think educating people is the best we can do.

How is this SOPA/PIPA-like? From the description it seems to have little in common with either of those.

They have similarities regarding the freedom of speech. Also, in the newly enacted bill, they can just restrict access to any websites that is said to violate the law. File sharing websites might be banned for access in the Philippines.

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