What do you think are some pitfalls of the existing Cyberlaws in your present situation? (State the existing law and comment)
a. in your own workplace?
b. in the Country you are now at present?
Primarily the provision in our country’s cyber crime law that is extremely flawed are the ones that border unconstitutional.
(4) Libel. — The unlawful or prohibited acts of libel as defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended, committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.
The law defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code was intended for printed materials. Traditionally, printed materials have high value in terms of thelegitimacy of information it provides due to the fact that the authors are authentic, as compared to a cyber account which anyone can fake, and a legitimate publishing house like news publications.
The reason for this is that if a reader sues a news writer for libel, the complainant can simply call the attention of the publishing house (since news articles have to be approved by the editor-in-chief), and verify the author and from there, legal process can proceed. However with the internet, Facebook for example, anyone can create an account, the posts or articles posted does not come from Facebook itself but from the users which are not monitored or regulated. So, the legal proceedings are much difficult, and at the same time, anyone can be framed by simply creating a fake account.
The problem with our lawmakers is that they are trying to regulate internet communications, and not really protect its citizens as they should be doing. At thesame time, the lawmakers are not tech savvy and simply try to make use of existing laws meant for traditional media, apply it to the cyberspace and expect that everything will work out the same.
Despite several protests from the netizens, the Supreme Court has deemed the the libel provision as constitutional. Despite the law being in effect, theimplementation seems to be not present as the law has not made this totally clear. Though this might be good that the government is lenient in implementing thesaid law. However, the fact that this provision is present means that this glitch is here to stay – hoping that one day, no person in power exploits it.
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