Will Philippines’ Marcos Jnr form social media regulatory board for ‘anti-government propaganda’ clampdown?

A civil society group is urging Marcos Jnr to start a social media regulatory board but analysts fear the move could be targeted at silencing critics
Some analysts question how such a board could ‘police and punish’ foreign social media platforms that the Philippines ‘has no jurisdiction over’

The Philippines

Raissa Robles

Published: 8:54pm, 17 May 2024

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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is under pressure to create a social media regulatory board to combat “anti-government propaganda” ahead of the 2025 midterm elections, a move that analysts view as a tactic to silence critics rather than to resolve national security threats.

The Philippines’ Society of Social Media Broadcasters has requested the president to establish a “national social media regulatory board” through an executive order. The group also proposed that the board include representatives from the National Security Council, the Department of National Defence, and the Philippine National Police.

The group on Tuesday filed a complaint with the national police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group to address the creators of a “deepfaked” audio clip of Marcos Jnr allegedly ordering an attack on China. The presidential palace denounced the audio as fake on April 24.

Such misinformation poses a “clear and present danger” to Filipinos, said Dr. Michael Raymond Aragon, head of the Society of Social Media Broadcasters.

Customers at a cafe at Cebu IT Park in Cebu City. Section 154 of the Philippines’ penal code penalises the publication of false news that endangers public order or harms the state’s interests, with a maximum jail term of six months. Photo: Bloomberg

Evolving technology can influence public opinion and create national security concerns, he said, and such a regulatory board could target social media sites, individuals, and groups promoting anti-government content.

Currently, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board has the authority to suspend films and TV shows that incite “subversion, insurrection, rebellion, or sedition” and undermine public trust in the government. But this board does not extend to social media.

Dominic Ligot, a security specialist and executive director of Data Ethics PH, expressed doubt that such a regulatory board could crack down on social media posts because “no [Philippine] government agency has jurisdiction” over foreign social media platforms.

“Even if you created a social media regulatory board, to what extent can they police and punish?” Ligot said.

“They can only request certain content to be taken down.”

Even if you created a social media regulatory board, to what extent can they police and punish?

Dominic Ligot, Data Ethics PH

The Society of Social Media Broadcasters had cited Section 154 of the Revised Penal Code as the basis for their cybercrime complaint, but Ligot said the government of former president Rodrigo Duterte had used the same law to go after his critics.

This law penalises the publication of false news that endangers public order or harms the state’s interests, with a maximum jail term of six months.

Ligot said Section 154 has been used to protect the state from dissent, pointing to its use under Duterte’s administration to detain journalists. Although those journalists were eventually released, the threat of Section 154 looms over other government critics.

Ronald Llamas, a political risk analyst and chairman of Galahad Consulting Agency, said Aragon’s proposal could be used against all government critics but was “primarily meant for Duterte destabilisers”, referring to Duterte supporters who have been filling social media platforms with accusations of Marcos Jnr being a cocaine addict.

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Earlier this year, the national police’s director general Benjamin Acorda Jnr pledged to crack down on social media creators spreading false information, with police colonel Jean Fajardo highlighting Article 154 as a tool against such “destabilisers”.

On May 7, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV warned of a new destabilisation plot involving two senior police officials working with retired officers and Duterte supporters. However, the police said there was no evidence for the claim.

Trillanes said plotters planned to remove Marcos Jnr by June 30 and install Vice-President Sara Duterte as president, to foil any attempt to arrest her or her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, by the International Criminal Court.

Rodrigo Duterte is currently facing an investigation from the ICC for crimes against humanity over his brutal years-long drugs crackdown, which killed at least 8,000 people, according to official figures. Vice-President Sara Duterte, has also been accused of being complicit in deaths related to his drug war.

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