‘Online libel won’t stop bullying’

MANILA, Philippines - A blogger warned on Friday that the inclusion of online libel in the Cybercrime Prevention Law will not stop netizens from committing acts of bullying and trolling on the Internet.

Internet trolling is described as the act of causing interpersonal conflict and controversy online.

“The law itself will not stop people from commenting because basically, they will just go underground, use pseudonyms,” said blogger Juned Sonido during a media forum in Quezon City.

“They will be doing the same thing, but this time with anonymity,” he added.

Sonido was reacting to claims of proponents of online libel, particularly Sen. Vicente Sotto III, that the provision will level the playing field and will protect people from netizens who do not observe the standards of journalists.

Sotto, who claimed to be a victim of online bullying after allegations of plagiarism were hurled at him, earlier said the last-minute inclusion of the online libel provision is meant to protect those who suffer from online bullying.

But according to Sonido, people who are afraid of online libel will simply use anonymous accounts to participate in discussions.

He said this would increase cases of cyber bullying as people who are anonymous often do not stand by what they say.

“Nobody knows who you are. (It will allow people to) say things beyond their scope because they are not responsible for what they say,” he said.

For instance, Sonido said a disgruntled employee who used to air criticisms against his manager on his Facebook account may instead use an anonymous blog to get around online libel.

“If (the manager) discovers that someone maligned him, he will not be able to charge anyone (because it’s anonymous),” he said.

Sonido said the possible increase of people using anonymous accounts may push back discussions on the Internet by 10 to 20 years.

“One of the things that we want in productive discussions online is to know (who we are talking to),” he said, adding that anonymity removes accountability from people participating in conversations.

Asked about the capability of investigating bodies to track down the source of posts, Sonido said there are existing technologies that can “cloak” the whereabouts of the anonymous poster.

“There are several ways to malign someone (anonymously). You can mask your IP (Internet protocol) address. You can even ask someone in the United States to post for you,” he said.

No legal trouble

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled that receiving posts or giving comments in social networking sites would not be cause for legal action against Internet users.

In a 50-page decision, the SC said that while the Cybercrime Prevention Law “penalizes online libel as valid and constitutional with respect to the original author of the post,” it is “void and unconstitutional with respect to others who simply receive the post and react to it.”

It also said that when it comes to certain cybercrimes, the waters are muddier and the line of sight is somewhat blurred. The idea of aiding or abetting wrongdoing online threatens the heretofore popular and unchallenged dogmas of cyberspace use.  â€“ With Evelyn Macairan