A house bill on the lower house, filed by another representative, seeks to penalize harassment made through text messaging or social media.
House Bill 4795, introduced by Rep. Johnny Pimentel, aims to ‘ensure the protection of the right to free speech and expression in cyberspace without its abuse’. With the house bill, those who threaten another through text messaging and social media and other electronic means of communication, as well as ‘placing a person in fear of imminent physical harm’ through the said channels will be penalized.
Also included in those that will be penalized are the following:
- Engaging in conduct that causes distress to another person through electronic media
- Sharing indecent/lewd/obscene posts and comments, with sexual comments intending to harass the victim
- Posting remarks that incite or induce others into threatening a person through the electronic communication channels
- Using a Fake account for the purposes mentioned above
Penalties, if the bill will be enacted into law, will be imprisonment for 5-10 years, and fines between Php100,000-500,000. You can read more of the house bill here.
Slippery slope to curtailing freedom of speech and expression. We already have libel laws. Just toughen up your skin in social media.