The Philippine Government has just passed a bill that effectively ends the Freedom of Expression in the Philippines.
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 is the most notorious act ever witnessed in the cyber-history of the Philippines,
and the language of the bill is cunningly designed to make you think it only applies to individuals who are deep in
cyber-technology and doesn't apply to everyone, but some part of the bill basically says it can imprison anyone who
commits libel either by written messages, comments, blogs, or posts in sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or any other
comment-spaces of other social media in the Internet.
New technologies give us new opportunities to connect with a lot of people not only in this country but all over the world.
They can also provide us with a medium through which our political, public and even private views can have an immediate and
direct impact on individuals, communities and even countries. It is just so disappointing that our government, in adopting
our 80-year-old antiquated libel laws to the Cybercrime Law, again seems to have retarded our march with the rest of the world
with respect to giving full force to the people's freedom of expression.
We ask for a revision of the said bill for the betterment of the Filipino denizens.
Protect our Right to Freedom of Expression!
Source: BSP Website and GMA News
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