Photo Release

Impunity because of anonymity: Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon seeks the opinion and guidance of the resource persons who attended the hybrid hearing of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision on a proposal that will compel all social media platforms to reveal the identity of trolls. Drilon, who was a victim of libel in cyberspace, said revealing the identity of internet trolls could help establish a balance between the freedom of speech and the responsibility of the use of that freedom in the internet. Drilon added that trolls just keep on hitting everybody they want to hit in social media and they have impunity because of the anonymity. “In traditional media, we do not censor, but we make those responsible for defamatory language. We make them responsible under our revised penal code for defamation. In the development that we have because of technology, you cannot avail of this right because of the anonymity of the authors,” Drilon said during the hearing on Senate Resolution No. 953, directing the committee to conduct a review of the country’s existing criminal laws in light of the rise of social media platforms and the rapid advancement of technology Thursday, December 9, 2021. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)