A Dark Day For The Philippines As Government Passes Cybercrime Act

[DaBees-Knees]

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/10/dark-day-philippines-government-passes-cyb

The government of the Philippines today has passed the troubling Cybercrime Prevention Act. The Act covers a range of offenses, but - as we wrote last month - is particularly problematic because of a libel provision that criminalizes anonymous online criticism.

In addition to criminalizing online libel, Section 19 of the Act would also allow the country’s Department of Justice to block access to “computer data” that is in violation of the Act; in other words, a website hosting criminally libelous speech could be shut down without a court order.

Activists in the Philippines believe that the Act is unconstitutional and are petitioning the country’s Supreme Court to declare it so. In their submission, the petitioning groups (including the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the Philippine Press Institute, among others), write ...

It seems that those in the Philippines who say they wish to apply the law are not so particular as regards the details of the way that they apply it.