SEN. Ronald Dela Rosa yesterday said the government should set community standards on social media platforms rather than the other way around to be able to better combat cyber-related crimes, including human trafficking and the online sexual exploitation of children.
Dela Rosa, who chairs the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said efforts to combat cyber-related crimes is a race between criminal groups and the government, adding there is a need to bolster the latter’s campaign not only by giving more funds to the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) but also to pass an enabling law that will allow the government to set the standards on social media platforms.
“There is an ongoing technology race between criminal groups and the government and the government is facing difficulties to regulate or stop these kinds of crimes. That’s why we need an enabling law on this,” he said.
He said despite the best efforts not only by the DICT but also by law enforcement agencies, such as the anti-cybercrime units of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), cyber-related crimes are still flourishing.
“It is the big social media platforms that are setting the community standards that the whole world must follow but it should be the government who should set the community standards,” he said.
The former PNP chief cited some social media sites that he said “are for nation building” but were taken down by social media platforms for allegedly violating community standards.
“On the other hand, there are sites that support the insurgents, those who are involved in the armed struggle against the state, and yet they are not taken down,” Dela Rosa lamented.
He said he would support the DICT’s request for P300 million in confidential funds to fight cyber-related crimes, including scammers.
“There is really a need for additional funding that they can use to address these kinds of crimes,” Dela Rosa said.
DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy earlier said cyber criminals hide behind layers of identity so the agency needs more in-depth capability in terms of identifying them and procuring the necessary tools to address this.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla also said the NBI and the DOJ are boosting their capability to go after cybercriminals through the recruitment of additional personnel for their cyber-crime divisions.
Remulla said around 70 percent of crimes reported to the NBI are cyber-related.
Last year, the NBI added 16 more personnel to its anti-cybercrime division which is staffed by more than 200 personnel, including lawyers and certified public accountants.
Among the cases the cybercrime division handles are complaints filed by private citizens such as identity theft, online scam or fraud, hacking of bank accounts and personal accounts, phishing, cyber libel, forensic accounting and other violations that fall within the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
Last Wednesday, DOJ Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty said the government’s effort to fight human and sex trafficking is hampered by some social media platforms that refuse to cooperate with authorities.
Remulla previously warned Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that if they refuse to cooperate in tracking down abusers, particularly of minors, the government may go after them and sue them for online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 requires them to install software that will block access to or transmittal of any form of child pornography on the internet.
The law also requires ISPs to notify authorities within seven days from discovery that any form of child pornography is being committed using their servers or facilities.
