“Threats
found!”
And the
cyberworld cringes. The seemingly unbridled virus passed judgement
to every unknowing outlaw who managed to live in an era of peace until
now. Or was it?
Law puts
everything into order. In inverse proportionality, the enactment of the
Republic Act 10175 or the Anti Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 proved the
latter wrong. As an action results to an equal but opposite reaction, it
spawned chaos in heightened levels all-over the Archipelago and even in the
international vista. Protests from all sectors flooded social media of
all platforms, hackers rendered their so –called duty accomplished and the netizens staged
an all-out black parade.
The law
has its pros. Not only true to Filipinos, humans have ostensibly
forgotten a vital element of democracy; that any one’s right ends when
another’s starts. This twisted light upshots the likes of identity theft, fraud
and cyber bullying which crawls deep into every byte to exist in the digital
abode. As it has been underlined to purify the perceived cyberworld, the Anti Cybercrime Prevention
Act of 2012 was put to the forefront apparently half-baked.
The word in itself cannot stand up to what the “cyberworld”
encompasses as one may be lost in its intricacy. It is a complex lattice of cultures that threatening to govern it
with a law ill-equipped is a slap on one’s own face.
It
is easy to become dubious witnessing the very minds who greased the bill’s
passage doubt the same provisions that it flaunts. The inclusion of a libel clause
with a greater punishment than libel in traditional media is outright
oppressive and even piles grave chances of double jeopardy for breaking both
laws. It curtails the right to express in ways that others don’t
understand. Filipinos, who prove to be happy-go-lucky can now
caress cold bars for criticizing a friend , which may appear libellous to a
different audience, but to a clique a normal behavior. It proves the law
indistinct and sets no limitation to liability.
The same
libel provision becomes tainted in malice as it appears as a blanket of
protection woven by minds who wants to shut other curious minds that has an
even greater voice in the world wide web. It is funny and yet shameful that the
law draws attention from the United
Nations Human Rights Committee asking
for the law to be repealed.
To lever
the security of Filipinos through the legislation of the Republic Act
10175 being new is utterly overwhelming. But its implementation is another. The
Internet as multifaceted as it is challenges the power of this law to govern in
its virtual arenas. A cyber bullying case of a Filipino whose bully is traced
to be from a different country governed by a different set of laws will put the
clout of this bill into vain. It has yet to be further considered and it is a
must to prepare law enforcers and the nation it rules as to how magnanimous the
duty is.
As it is
difficult even to maintain a blog, it would be even difficult to pick out
suspected obstruction of this law. First off is to clear the ego-filled cache
and delete the personal viruses of the minds that has obstinately
dominated the house from which laws spring from.
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