DAVAO CITY, Philippines — No due process.
This was the take of TXTPower, a consumer advocacy group in the Philippines composed mainly of mobile users, when the National Telecommunications Commissions ordered internet service providers in the Philippines to block PornHub and other 21 pornographic sites that may have violated Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law.
“There was apparently no due process involved in the ‘takedown’ ordered by the NTC. Pornhub, which exists legally in their respective jurisdictions, did not have a fair hearing. The public’s due process rights were also violated, along with our right to privacy, to free expression, to choose whatever we could privately watch,” Anthony Ian Cruz, TXTPower president, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Cruz said the move of NTC to block websites under the pretext of fighting child porn is “a misguided and dangerous use of state power.” He pointed out that it only prevented the public from helping both the websites and the government on reporting child pornography.
“It does not solve problems, but creates new ones — like the proliferation of other websites where child porn syndicates could still show or sell their illegal output. It only looks good as news for a week — but the problems remain,” he said.
Cruz continued, “it also promotes censorship of all ideas perceived to be dangerous, subversive, objectionable, and inconvenient for the state authorities who wield such a power to take down a website. Yes, it puts everyone’s internet freedom under serious threat.”
NTC’s move to block pornographic websites came after Pornhub, in its usage statistics report for 2016, noted that Filipinos spent 12 minutes and 45 seconds per session viewing pornographic materials, considered to be an average longer visits in a global scale.
On January 14, NTC blocked all the identified pornographic websites. Internet users who used to browse porn sites on the web read this message: “This website has been ordered blocked under authority of the Philippine government pursuant to Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law.”
“Ang [PNP] mas nakakaalam because they are monitoring it. We of course rely on the expertise of our law enforcement agencies,” NTC deputy commissioner Edgardo Cabarrios as quoted saying in an Interaksyon report.
With this, TXTPower has challenged the government “to confront child porn the way it should be fought, by cracking down on the source: arrest and prosecute the producers and recruiters, and save children caught in this criminal activity.”
“Free speech and internet freedom are too important thus they must be protected from abuse both from child porn purveyors and from irresponsible authorities. We intend to bring this issue before the House and the Senate, and we don’t discount going back to the court for protection,” the group said.
“This is a time for discernment: We must keep the internet free and safe from child porn and from all threats of state censorship,” the group added. (davaotoday.com)
