MANILA, Philippines—Social media users in the Philippines staged Tuesday an online protest, coinciding with a demonstration staged by various groups in Padre Faura, Manila calling on the Supreme Court to reject the controversial anti-cybercrime law that is to take effect Wednesday.
Dubbed as “Black Tuesday,” Facebook and Twitter users from all walks of life changed their profile pictures to a plain black image as part of a “Black out call for anti-cybercrime law.”
Other users used a photo grabbed from the Philippine Internet Freedom Alliance which read “cyber martial law” with a daring “no sign” on it.
Meanwhile, in posting status messages and comments, users expressed their “outrage” on the cybercrime law by posting a comment that has been apparently covered with a black highlighter saying that the post has been blocked by virtue of “RA [Republic Act] 10175.
████████████████████████.
[ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛ ʙʟᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ.] (ʀᴀ ɴᴏ. 10175)
███████████████████████. [sᴛᴀᴛus ʙʟᴏᴄᴋᴇᴅ.] (ʀᴀ ɴᴏ. 10175)
An image posted at the fan page of “We Support Anonymous Philippines” which read “Apparently they can send you to jail for sharing something on Facebook *up to 12 years in fact*,” was liked and shared by thousands of users who are up against the new ruling, obviously despite the risk participants may get themselves into.
As of posting the particular image garnered 2,724 likes and 8,915 shares, not yet including separate likes and shares each user get from putting up the same graphic in their own Facebook timelines.
In an apparent humor, Facebook user Kevin Troy A Lumandas, one of the 716 commenters as of posting time, said the government should first work on our jails to accommodate every citizen who will be proven guilty of violating the cybercrime law.
“Isang araw lang di na matuluan ng pawis kulungan dahil sa batas na yan,” he added.
Drakheart Rkf, for his part, said passing the act makes him “mad” as the government had taken his freedom to express his opinion without the governments intervention.
“As a human… Where did my human rights go…? My freedom to speak…? My freedom of writing and opinion..?!!! Why u government sh__ take it away from me,” he said, adding that the government may arrest him or ban him from the cyber world, but they won’t be able to take his freedom of speech.
Another picture which read “people should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people” is also going around Facebook.
The “We Support Anonymous Philippines” fan page itself had 7,530 likes since it was created last Saturday.
In Twitter, on the other hand, hashtag #NoToCyberCrimeLaw topped Tuesday’s trending topics in the Philippines as of posting.
The Supreme Court earlier said the implementation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 will push through Wednesday after it decided to defer action on various petitions questioning its constitutionality.