I am a blogger since 2006. I started sharing my everyday amusement and observation online. When I was in my sophomore year in high school, I became part of our school publication and so my then-online diary became a citizen-journalism-slash-commentary-slash-editorial blog. It amused me because some of the articles I published online were recognized by people. I became “popular” in my high school because I am already an internet slave as early as those years.
I used to say I am more human in the cyber world. I am more of everything I am. I am free to express myself. The internet gave me no limitations on how I should express my thoughts. I am a free man. And when democracy was questioned even in a democratic country like mine, the World Wide Web provided me my freedom of expression.
It is a shame though that, in a democratic country like ours, a law such as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was passed. It’s an indirect way of putting masking tapes in our mouth. We need this law, but not to the extent of having provisions on libel. It is questionable enough that the provisions of this law are graver than the usual cases of libel.
The thing I questioned most about this law is the issues of liability. Facebook and Twitter are social networking sites. They work as medium for people to interact, to communicate and to share their thoughts. Even polls and surveys by news programs (Bandila & TV Patrol) regarding an issue were made through these. How do this law determine who is liable for libel? Should people just stop tweeting “negative” things about a certain politician—despite just stating a matter a fact? People who agree and share the same sentiments cannot comment or tweet back too because they can be held liable for the same case. You cannot just tell people to not express their thoughts, it is like internet martial law.
The Philippine media is one independent body, and so should the people. The internet is a new media. It is one of the most accessible medium through which people can communicate to each other and even to the government. For me, the government should not be weary of the continuous “negative” posts that came up to the internet about them and their subordinates, rather they should respect the people’s sentiments and do something about it. They shouldn’t be afraid of what the people think of them. They should consider seeing the situation as a new way of knowing what the mass thinks—or are they just afraid that more and more people see their dirty tricks?