Gov't using social media vs freedom of expression, protest —Amnesty Int’l

Philippine authorities are increasingly using social media to suppress young activists’ right to freedom of expression and protest, according to Amnesty International.

In its latest report, Amnesty International said the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supposedly weaponized digital tools, misinformation, and vague anti-terror laws against young activists.

"Activists and other critical voices are being red-tagged and identified as targets by the government, and then pursued online. However, in the Philippines, the issue does not only concern online harassment; it also results in tangible harm offline," Amnesty Tech director Damini Satija said.

"Over the years, red-tagging has been used to instigate direct threats and attacks on those who criticize and oppose the government and Meta is playing an enabling role in this,” she added.

Due to this, Amnesty International called on Philippine authorities to stop the red-tagging campaign, repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act, and abolish the government’s anti-insurgency task force.

“The Philippine authorities must immediately stop their repressive red-tagging campaign, repeal the ATA, and cease any form of intimidation, harassment, threats or attacks against human rights activists,” Satija said.

“They must also abolish NTF-ELCAC and promptly conduct an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into its activities,” she added.

NSC denies

In a statement, the National Security Council (NSC) denied the allegations.

"We take very strong exception to the one-sided, misleading, and baseless report of Amnesty International for making rash judgments of the Marcos, Jr. administration so far removed from reality,” NSC assistant director general Jonathan Malaya said.

“Freedom of expression in the Philippines is constitutionally-protected and we can see that in the robust and healthy traditional and social media environment where opinions are expressed freely every single day," he added.

Malaya called out Amnesty International for failing to include the Marcos administration’s efforts to protect freedom of speech and of the press.

"Al did not even account for the side of the Philippine government before it released its report. The NSC should have been given the opportunity to rebut each of their so-called findings before this was released to the public,” he said.

“This only fuels speculation that the report is more for propaganda purposes to vilify the state rather than an honest assessment,” he added.

Amnesty report

Amnesty International, for its part, said: “At the time of publication, the Philippine government had not responded to a request for comment on the findings of Amnesty’s report.”

The organization interviewed young activists who described their personal experiences with red-tagging, which has led to “a climate of fear and self-censorship” and “giving up on their work as activists or journalists.”

“Ana,” 26-year-old student activist said, “When you're harassed online or when you're posted online, that makes you a target. It's letting people know that this person is a target, that you should not get close to this person.”

“Of course, if you're not yet organized, it would make you think that you wouldn't want to be an activist because your life would be put in danger,” she added.

The report also cited the disappearance of environmental rights defender Rowena Dasig in August 2024 who is “feared to have become the target of a series of enforced disappearances of human rights defenders.’

According to Amnesty International, the red-tagging attacks against opponents were notable on the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) Facebook page.

It added that state security forces have filed baseless complaints against young activists and arbitrarily detained them.

The organization cited the case of 21-year-old Southern Tagalog activist Hailey Picayo who was accused of being a terrorist and a member of armed rebel group New People’s Army (NPA) in August 2022.

“They are framing us as deceivers of the youth. It's not a normal thing to be facing at our age,” said Hailey who was probing security force members for the supposed killing of a minor.—Joviland Rita/AOL, GMA Integrated News