Black Tuesday for anti-cybercrime law

By Pauline Francisco

Social networking sites appeared to have been under repair when Netizens all over the Philippines changed their profile pictures to solid black images to participate in an online protest against the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

Labelled as “Black Tuesday,” the online protest was initiated by the Philippine Internet Freedom Alliance (PIFA) to express their intention to stop what many dub as the “Cyber Martial Law.”

PIFA, wrote in its campaign “Respect our right to free speech, privacy and information,” followed by the tag line, “Prevent dictatorship. Protect democracy.”

The alliance also staged a “silent protest” with some of its 100 members at the Supreme Court to oppose the Cybercrime law and to stop its implementation.

Some protesters even turned to be hacking. Philippine National Police’s website was the latest victim of computer hackers in protest of the law. 

Other websites earlier defaced includes the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Philippine Anti-Piracy Team, Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Region 3, Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis, and the Department of Health’s antismoking program.

Street protests were also conducted in Mindanao. Members of militant groups in Davao City joined the movement to express disapproval on the cybercrime law as they lay down on a portion of the road, which has also caused obstruction in the traffic flow.

The group said the law violated freedom of expression, the constitutional guarantee of protection against double jeopardy, due process, and the privacy of communication and correspondence because it allowed real-time collection of traffic data, effectively, surveillance without warrant.

Many Filipino netizens considered PIFA’s call on Facebook and Twitter and changed to black profile images to express dismay for the implementation of the law and support the Anti-Cybercrime Prevention Act.

Some netizens expressed dismay by putting a black bar as their status message instead of words followed by [POST BLOCKED].

This controversy circulating all over the internet draws different criticisms and reactions from the people. It made #NoToCybercrimeLaw and #blacktuesday among the top trending topics on twitter last Tuesday.