Netizens, we have a champion!
“Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has vowed to rally her colleagues to repeal the libel provision of the cybercrime law, but also urged netizens to do this in court,” reports TJ Burgonio in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Santiago had pointed out that “as it is worded, the libel provision in the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012—upheld in a Supreme Court (SC) ruling announced on Tuesday (Feb 18)—was vague, and very broad.”
She said, “You hardly know who are covered by it. Although the SC said it is only the sender who is liable not the person who is commenting or who is receiving, but what does this word mean? Who is the sender? The service provider? The individual netizen? Or if they are a group, how are we identifying them? Or even worse, if they are not using their true identities, how are you going to go beyond what they profess to be their identities on the Internet? That is the main problem today.”
Santiago slammed the law’s language which, she said, “is so vague that it becomes illegal since it is a very significant constraint” on freedom of expression.”
Screengrab from a news clip
