Netizens and the whole online community are in full force today posting black profiles on their twitters , facebooks and other social networking sites together with different posts on blogs and news sites as a sign of protest to the "Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012" also known as RA 10175.
The intentions of the new bill is really good and that is to strengthen the laws we have on certain areas like cyber bullying, pornography and other cyber crimes from which we do not have laws firmly establised. But as good as the intention may be the execution of which is one that is questionable. Some of the provisions of the bill really violate some of the existing rights that we Filipinos have. It is one way or another suppressing our freedom of speech which is one of the basic rights of being a democratic country. There are indeed glaring misconsiderations on some of the basic principles of our human rights. Quote unquote, based on our 1987 Constitution, Section 4 "No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievance". Clearly something that was a vivid oversight.
Another argument is the inclusion of the controversial clause regarding libel. How one can be actually sued for just a mere posting of a comment, giving status updates in FB or retweeting something in Twitter is really a big surprise. And how one who is found guilty of such crime get to have a longer sentence than one who has committed rape was simply unfathomable.
Well, we all know about our social responsibility that is paired with our freedom of expression but relatively people won't say anything if they do not see anything that is wrong. This is a new generation and relatively we make use of social media and the internet to say what's on our minds. What needs to be taught is for each one to know how to write responsibly and relay messages in the best manner. That does not mean we can't say something wrong when we see them. From my point of view, the officials are using this so that nothing bad against them can be said. Why worry that much if it isn't true? Simple, right?
One note that people fail to say is how big amount of money our government is appropriating for this. 50 million pesos for making sure cyber crimes are limited and wrongdoers are captured is just way too much. We can allot some amount for this but in times where we have some other bigger problems to face, we could have allotted that amount to other concerns instead like education, health and agriculture. Truly something worth thinking of.
And for some of our lawmakers vocally saying that they have missed some points for consideration while passing the bill, that really saddens me. I love some of the ones that signed the bill. Not sure however if I have the same regard for them anymore. I am not saying I am against the bill but there has to be some changes made to it. Enforce the law in a way that the basic rights of people are not run over. For us, bloggers, regular FB users and tweet peeps, stay responsible and say what's right, and we'll all know we'll not be harmed.
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