OPENING STATEMENT
Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes
Senator Francis N. Pangilinan
December 9, 2021
Good morning to my dear colleagues and to our resource persons. Before we begin, this representation would like to thank Minority Floor Leader, Senator Drilon, for agreeing to co-author Proposed Senate Resolution No. 953 which seeks to direct this Committee to study our existing criminal laws considering the rise of social media platforms and the rapid advancement of technology.
Based on the report, Digital 2021: The Philippines, by We are Social and Hootsuite, the Philippines tops the entire world in: (i) average daily time spent using social media at around 4 hours 15 minutes per day; and (ii) average daily time spent using the internet at around 10 hours 56 minutes per day. Babad na babad ang mga Pilipino sa social media at sa internet.
Dahil Pilipinas, according to We are Social and Hootsuite, ang topnotcher, naisipan po namin ni Senator Drilon na i-file ang Senate Resolution 953 para mapagaralan natin kung nakakahabol ba yung mga batas natin sa mabilis na pag-usbong ng social media at teknolohiya.
Despite technological advancements, our laws should always protect us and our loved ones – our children – from those who abuse the openness of the internet by spreading disinformation, hate speech, and undertake criminal activity using social media platforms.
Survivors of these malicious attacks suffer lingering mental, psychological, and emotional challenges. Ang worst case scenario po dito ay maging parte na ng kultura ng mga kababayan natin ang pagsisinungaling, pagmumura, pambubully, at panloloko. Hindi po tayo papayag na maging new normal ito.
We have invited resource persons from the academe, creative and media agencies, social media platforms, business groups, private businesses, some fact-checking entities, and legal luminaries to shed light on how the disinformation industry works and what are the action steps being taken by the social media platforms, ad agencies, and private businesses as well as how legislation may address and curb the rise of disinformation and hate speech in the Philippine digital landscape. We shall also discuss how private businesses may be inadvertently funding channels or accounts that spread disinformation and hate speech.
In the interest of full disclosure, last July 2021, this representation filed cybercrime cases against the owners and operators of certain YouTube channels over unfounded and baseless videos directed at my person, my wife, Sharon, and my family. Alam ko na hindi lang ang aking pamilya ang biktima ng fake news, digital disinformation, at hate speech. At tulad ninyo ay gagawin natin ang lahat upang maprotektahan ang ating pamilya laban sa kanila.
We are conducting this hearing the address the critical gaps of the law since digital or network disinformation is not simply personal concern but worldwide concern that requires governmental as well as stakeholder, corporate, civil society organization interventions.
Magpapakita po kami ng ilang halimbawa. Dito po sa YouTube video na ipapakita namin. Ang unang bahagi ay nag play ang ads ng Shopee at Lazada habang ang kabuuan ng video ay puro paninira lang sa ating Senate President Sotto.
May iilang halimbawa pa kaming nakita. Ito ay mga screen shots namula sa mga YouTube videos na umaatake sa aking pagkatao. Makikita sa mga screenshots na yung ads ng Cobra (Asia Brewery), East Bay Residences (Rockwell Land), Shopee, at Great Taste Coffee (URC) ay ipinapalabas mga video na nagkakalat din ng hate speech at fake news. Dalawa ang makikita niyo sa bawat frame. Yung ads ng mga wholesome na korporasyon at yung title ng video na “SHUT UP KIKO ANG BOBO MO” o “KIKO TINAWAG NA BOBO NG MGA OFW”.
Do these wholesome and well-respected brands want to be associated with hate speech? Iilan lang po ito sa mga balak talakayin ng komiteng ito sa hearing na ito at sa mga susunod pang hearing.
Allow me as well to point out key points in the article “Architects of Network of Disinformation” written by Dr. Jason Cabanez as co-author and Dr. Jonathan Ong, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amhurst, whose expertise is digital technology. Dr. Cabanez is a communications professor at the De La Salle University. Among the summary of the findings in the paper: the use of fake accounts and paid influencers on FB and Twitter for political operations is widespread.
Politicians often employ campaign strategists from local “boutique advertising and PR agencies” as chief architects of disinformation campaigns.
Ad agencies strategists and PR strategists heavily rely on the promotional labor of digital influencers who have around 50,000 to 2,000,000 followers and community-level fake account operators who manually operate fake profiles to infiltrate community groups and news pages and very minimally on automated bots. Disinformation workers are financially, politically, socially, and psychologically-driven in different ways (e.g. financial motivations, political motivations, etc.).
Operating fake accounts for politicians involve always on flexible and self-exploitative arrangements as other online freelance work. However, it is accomplished by the stressful emotional labor of justifying this work both to others and to themselves.
Network disinformation campaigns operate with two opposing dynamics in play, control interactivity (using of a common script cascaded and too volatile virality depends on the creativity of the disinformation worker) taps into populist anger and resentment may lead to misogyny, anti intellectualism, and other forms of offensive speech.
Seven, everyone in the disinformation hierarchy seems to be engaged in various degrees of trolling.
With these, we would like to proceed with the hearing. Ginagawa po natin ito to protect the community, our children. It is our shared responsibility to set-up sufficient safeguards and policies to curb onlinehate speech, eliminate disinformation, and totally and address online criminal activity squarely.
Ang hiling lang po namin ay sana bukas sa pakikipagtulungan at ating mga stakeholders tulad ng mga social media platforms, advertising agencies, at ang mga advertiser o mga corporations, mga private businesses para sa tuluyan nating masugpo ang problema natin sa disinformation.
Maraming salamat at simulan na po natin ang hearing.