BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
REPUTATIONS can be violated by online crimes such as libel, slander, theft of intellectual property, pornography, extortion, child abuse images, obscenity, streaming child sex abuse or inciting violence endangering the public.
Some owners of social media platforms allow some of these crimes on their platforms in the name of freedom of speech. Their subscribers in some countries can advocate racism, religious hatred, intolerance, extremism and spread discrimination, misogyny and racism.
Some use the platform to incite violence and extremism as happened recently in the UK. Although all these crimes are forbidden by law, it is flouted and ignored by the Philippine telecommunication Internet service providers that consider themselves above the law. The CEOs of these companies could be arrested in Europe like Pavel Durov, billionaire owner of Telegram.
Some owners of social media platforms and Internet service Providers (ISPs) allow and encourage these illegal activities in the name of “freedom of speech.” They earn huge amounts of money doing so.
Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist,” as the owner of X (formerly Twitter), is in conflict with the judiciary of Brazil. Recently, a panel of Supreme Court justices supported their fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in ordering the blocking of Elon Musk’s X platform in Brazil.
The judge levied a daily fine of US$9000 against X until Musk obeys the law and appoints a country representative and removes hateful and extreme, right-wing content. Musk claims to be a “Free Speech Absolutist” and responded with insults and claimed the court decision was a violation of free speech.
The billionaire owner and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, 39, a Russian national with dual French and United Arab Emirates citizenship was arrested in France and is being charged under EU law for allowing crimes like child pornography, trafficking fraud, drug sales, hate speech, and many more on his platform.
The European Union has a strong law, The Digital Services Act of February 2024. It prohibits all such offensive postings under which Pavel Durov of Telegram was arrested and may be prosecuted. The act will hold these platforms legally liable for their users’ unlawful behavior if they are aware of illegal content. Such ‘content’ includes child sexual abuse material, terrorist content, illegal hate speech or illegal goods and services.
In the United States, politicians in 19 states have responded to the abusive content on social media and websites in recent years by passing laws to protect children from getting access to the shocking explicit web sites like Pornhub- the fourth most popular website on Earth, some say. The US States are demanding that visitors to web sites like Pornhub show a government ID card every time the customer checks in. The response of Pornhub has been to close down all access to their websites to everyone.
New proposed legislation in Europe, Australia, the United States and some Asian countries are going to demand that minors show government-issued age verification IDs to access certain social media platforms That may protect children but it will not stop the live streaming of children being abused online. That needs strong enforcement of the Anti-OSAEC law, which the Philippines is lacking./PN
