By: Anna Patricia Carillo
A collection of black boxes was what greeted most Filipino
netizens when they logged on to Facebook and Twitter last Tuesday.
Plain black colored photos were in place of profile pictures
as a form of protest on the Anti-Cybercrime Act or Republic Act (RA) 10175,
which was implemented only last Wednesday. The anti-cybercrime act aims to
target illegal or criminal behavior over the internet.
What has most Filipino internet users up in arms is the
libel clause indicated in the said act which has tougher penalties than that under
the Revised Penal Code. If found guilty of online libel one may face up to 20
years in prison or must pay a hefty fine of Php 1,000,000.
Netizens rallied up on Facebook and Twitter believing that
the said act was a violation of their freedom of expression. Aside from the
plain black profile pictures, when an online protester would post a comment or
status message they would add a black highlighter over their words, supposing
that the act had blocked their actual message.
████████████████████████.
[ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛ ʙʟᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ.] (ʀᴀ ɴᴏ.
10175)
Photos of a Guy Fawkes mask with the words, “People should
not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their
people,” is also circulating around Facebook.
As for the famous hacktivists dubbed as “Anonymous
Philippines”, support continues to rally around them for the cause. A Facebook
page solely dedicated to them entitled “We Support Anonymous Philippines”
already has 28, 743 likes.
On Twitter, the hashtag #NoToCyberCrimeLaw, became the top
trending topic in the Philippines.
No comments:
Post a Comment