State shutdown of social media accounts OK if due process followed, civil rights group says

MANILA, Philippines — There is no reason to worry over a proposal to allow the Department of Information and Communications Technology to shut down social media accounts linked to terrorism as long as due process is guaranteed, an ICT civil rights advocacy group said Wednesday.

This, after a National Intelligence Coordinating Agency proposal got the support from Senators Panfilo Lacon and Gregorio Honasan—designated DICT secretary—at a hearing on anti-terrorism bills on Tuesday.

"The law must be followed," Democracy.Net.Ph co-convener Pierre Tito Galla told Philstar.com in a phone interview on Wednesday.

"Our rights online are our rights offline. As decided in Disini v. SOJ, the takedown of any online content requires judicial intervention," Galla said. "And if the amendments don't comply with constitutional guarantees, then, most definitely, we will disagree," he added.

He said, however, that the group—which opposed parts of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 that were later struck down as unconstitutional—would oppose proposals to give the government blanket authority to takedown citizens' social media pages without due process.

Galla cited the Supreme Court's declaration of Section 19 of the law as unconstitutional, as the main protection for Filipino internet users. This section pertains to the automatic takedown calls that would have allowed the Department of Justice to restrict information based on prima facie (intially observed) evidence alone.

The 1987 Constitution holds that "the privacy of communication and correspondence shall be inviolable except upon lawful order of the court, or when public safety or order requires otherwise, as prescribed by law" and that "no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press."

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Sen. Lacson, committee on public order chairman, told reporters after the committee meeting Tuesday that he would support the NICA recommendation.

"Definitely [it’s included]. In other countries as mentioned by one of the resource persons, the minister of transportation, for example, in Australia is within his mandate to shut down any account he deems will add peril when it comes to terrorism (would add peril when it comes to terrorism)," Lacson said.

He clarified in a tweet later Tuesday, however, that the proposed measure is under the condition that “such provisions do not violate the Constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

This is how I remember what I said in the ambush interview that immediately followed the public hearing - “...we will make sure such provisions do not violate the Constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”

— PING LACSON (@iampinglacson) November 27, 2018

Lawyer Roberton Lapuz of NICA mentioned that in India, that also has a high number of social media accounts like the Philippines, the government can ban applications that are “inimical to national interest.”

Marwil Llasos of the Institute of International Legal Studies told the committee that social media has been used as a means of radicalization and that the amendment to give the DICT powers to shut down accounts are “paramount to the police power of the state.”

He highlighted that social media has been often used as a means of radicalization.

In June 2017, the Armed Forces of the Philippines wrote to Facebook requesting the deletion of 63 accounts it said were linked to terrorism.

READ: Facebook to delete accounts promoting terrorism

Incoming DICT chief Honasan agreed. “First battleground is media, social media. We'll operationalize so that counterterrorism is everyone's business. Expeditiously, decisions can be made at the highest possible level."

He added: “I would like to see refinement on provisions of proposed measure, how we can have norms that propaganda materials on social media can be monitored or taken down.”

Honasan acknowledged that giving the state powers to shut down social media accounts or sites could be a threat to privacy, but security threats outweigh this. “Threats to privacy weighed against threats to life, liberty and property, it’s obvious whose favor we must resolve that,” he said.

Committee chairpersons said that discussed proposals would be consolidated into a bill seeking to amend Republic Act 9372, or the Human Security Act of 2007.

READ: Security officials want longer detention, surveillance periods for suspected terrorists

Gen. Carlito Galvez, AFP chief, told the committee last October that he we would push for the inclusion of other amendments to the security act extending surveillance and detention periods for suspected terrorists.