Philippines’ MANILA According to the most recent Freedom of the Net report from Washington-based non-profit Freedom House, internet freedom in the Philippines has significantly decreased over the past year as a result of the Duterte and Marcos administrations imposing new restrictions on online spaces.
The Philippines’ score in the index decreased from 65 out of 100 last year to 61 this year, being labeled as “partly free.”
“Just before leaving office, the Duterte administration blacklisted 27 websites, including online news sites. After the election, the online information environment is still replete with misinformation, and President Marcos Jr.’s SIM card registration bill puts people’s privacy at risk, according to a report made public on October 5.
Physical assaults, politicized lawsuits, and red-tagging, a type of harassment in which targets are allegedly linked to local communist parties, continued to affect online activists and media professionals, it stated.
Despite the Philippines’ shift away from authoritarian leadership following the fall of the dictatorship in 1986, Freedom House observed the country’s “haphazard” application of the rule of law and justice.
It also brought up the ongoing impunity for atrocities committed against journalists and activists.
The country’s score decreased by four points, ranking second among the countries in the report only to Iran, whose score dropped by five points, from 16 to 11 out of 100.
The Freedom of the Net score is determined by answering a series of questions divided into three categories: barriers to access, content restrictions, and violations of human rights. The maximum score is 100.
According to the report, the Philippines scored 16 out of 25 for access barriers (down from 17), 23 out of 35 for content restrictions (down from 26), and 22 out of 40 for human rights breaches (equal to last year).
The blocking of 27 websites under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the filing of cyber libel charges and other forms of intimidation against journalists and activists, and the passing of the new SIM card registration law were among the major events during the report’s study period, which ran from June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023.
A cumulative score of 0 to 39 places a nation in the “not free” category, 40 to 69 in the “partly free” category, and 70 to 100 in the “free” category.
Along with the Philippines, 32 nations were categorized as “partly free,” while 21 were deemed to be “not free.”
With nine out of a possible 100, China had the lowest score, followed by Myanmar (10), Iran (11), Cuba (20), Russia (21), Vietnam (22), Uzbekistan (25), Saudi Arabia (25), Belarus (25), Pakistan (26) and Ethiopia (26).
AI’s effects
The paper noted that, in addition to attacks on free speech, developments in artificial intelligence (AI) “are amplifying a crisis for human rights online.”
“Although AI technology has fascinating and positive applications for science, education, and society as a whole, its adoption has also expanded the scope, speed, and effectiveness of digital repression. Governments may now control online content more precisely and subtly thanks to automated technologies, according to the paper.
“Information peddlers use AI-generated visuals, audio, and text, making the truth more difficult to recognize and easier to distort. Massive datasets are combined with facial scans to identify and follow pro-democracy protestors, and sophisticated surveillance systems quickly comb social media for signals of discontent, it continued.
The research made notice of how some governments increased online censorship and disinformation campaigns by using AI capabilities.
According to Freedom House, “AI can act as an amplifier of digital repression, making censorship, surveillance, and the production and dissemination of false information easier, faster, cheaper, and more effective.”
