An Analysis of the Legal and Ethical Implications of Online Disinformation in the Philippines

Authors

  • Kenya Silvia Magbanua UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Philippines

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55885/jprsp.v2i2.201

Keywords:

Online Disinformation, Philippines, Legal Implications, Ethical Implications, Case Studies

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the legal and ethical considerations of disinformation on the PH cyberspace. This paper employed a qualitative research technique that employed case analysis of disinformation in the Philippines as well as a literature review. The study also assessed levels of compliance for existing laws for combating the spread of fake news including the Anti Cybercrime Law and the Data Privacy Act as well as the ethical issues arising from the effects of fake news. The findings revealed the following there is still a lot of maladjustment of the legislation in the sphere of legal regulation, the presence of numerous flaws in the legal regulation itself and the fact that in many countries the emphasis is made on the protection of data rather than the content. Further, the study revealed that the majorly, disinformation is spread with political interests and actors employ fake accounts and coordinated bots. Hence, it is necessary to diagnose the problem more deeply to develop not only proper legislation and control over its implementation but also promote extensive cooperation between the government, mass media, and developers of technologies, as well as improving the level of media competence of society.

References

Alampay, E., Dizon-Ross, R., Miranda, J. J., & Ong, J. (2018). Freedom of Expression and the Law in the Philippines: Defamation, Cyberlibel and Beyond. Asian Journal of Law and Society, 5(2), 349-372. https://doi.org/10.1017/als.2018.16

Alampay, L. P., Galvez Tan, L. J. T., Tuliao, A. P., Baranek, P., Ofreneo, M. A., Lopez, G. D., ... & Guintu, V. (2020). A pilot randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness program for Filipino children. Mindfulness, 11, 303-316. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01124-8

Alexander, L., & Horton, P. (2018). Review essay: the impossibility of a free speech principle. In Freedom of Speech (pp. 303-341). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315181981

Aranda, D. (2021). " Die-Hard Supporters": Overseas Filipino Workers' Online Grassroots Campaign for Duterte in the 2016 Philippines Elections. https://doi.org/10.37513/ciar.v14i2.618

Banaag, M. C. (2019). Social media and disinformation in the Philippines: an exploratory study on how social media is shaping the information landscape. Media Asia, 46(4), 347-357. https://doi.org/10.1080/01296612.2019.1686364

Barclay, C. (2017). Cybercrime and legislation: a critical reflection on the Cybercrimes Act, 2015 of Jamaica. Commonwealth Law Bulletin, 43(1), 77-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050718.2017.1310626

Cabañes, J. V. A. (2022). The imaginative dimension of digital disinformation: Fake news, political trolling, and the entwined crises of Covid-19 and inter-Asian racism in a postcolonial city. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 25(3-4), 428-444. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779211068533

Cabanes, J. V., Chua, R. Y., Ong, J., & Ong, A. T. (2018). A review of the Philippine data privacy act. International Data Privacy Law, 8(4), 289-307. https://doi.org/10.1093/idpl/ipy012

Cabañes, J., Anderson, C. W., & Ong, J. C. (2019). Fake news and scandal. In The Routledge companion to media and scandal (pp. 115-125). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351173001

Cawagas, V. R., & Rodil, K. R. (2021). Media literacy and disinformation in the Philippines: a case study of the 2019 midterm elections. Media Watch, 12(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.15655/mw/2021/v12i1/204308

Cepeda, M. (2019). Fact check: Proposed anti-terrorism law does not legalize wiretapping of all Filipinos. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/fact-check/231512-proposed-anti-terrorism-law-not-legalize-wiretapping-all-filipinos

Cross, C. (2021). Dissent as cybercrime: social media, security and development in Tanzania. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 15(3), 442-463. https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2021.1952797

Espina, J. V. (2019). Online disinformation and its impact on Philippine politics: a case study of the 2019 midterm elections. Journal of Contemporary Southeast Asian Affairs, 8(1), 56-73. https://doi.org/10.1177/2334041420907504

Fernandez, D. (2017). How fake news helped Duterte win. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/170042-how-fake-news-helped-duterte-win

Gadia, C. T. (2019). Propaganda and disinformation in the Philippines: legal and ethical issues. In T. Uy-Tioco & M. V. Esguerra (Eds.), Media, Law and Justice in the Philippines (pp. 157-168). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429506791-10

Harmse, D. (2022). Propaganda and the war on truth: examining informational inconsistencies governing South Africa’s Covid-19 policy response. EUREKA: Social and Humanities, (3), 70-90. https://doi.org/10.21303/2504-5571.2022.002323

Iosifidis, P., & Nicoli, N. (2020). Digital democracy, social media and disinformation. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429318481

Kaimo, K. (2019, June 18). How online harassment led to Iloilo Mayor Mabilog's downfall. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/nation/232050-online-harassment-iloilo-mayor-mabilog-downfall

MacDonald, A., Clarke, A., & Huang, L. (2022). Multi-stakeholder partnerships for sustainability: Designing decision-making processes for partnership capacity. In Business and the ethical implications of technology (pp. 103-120). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18794-0_7

Marsden, C., Meyer, T., & Brown, I. (2020). Platform values and democratic elections: How can the law regulate digital disinformation?. Computer law & security review, 36, 105373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2019.105373

Martínez Otero, J. M. (2021). Fake reviews on online platforms: perspectives from the US, UK and EU legislations. SN Social Sciences, 1(7), 181. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00193-8

Maweu, J. M. (2019). “Fake elections”? Cyber propaganda, disinformation and the 2017 general elections in Kenya. African Journalism Studies, 40(4), 62-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2020.1719858

Miller, D., & Robinson, P. (2019). Propaganda, politics and deception. The Palgrave handbook of deceptive communication, 969-988. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96334-1_50

Nieves, J. D. M., & Sotto, G. F. (2018). The Ethics of Fake News in the Philippines: A Study on Political Propaganda. Kritika Kultura, 30, 61-83. https://doi.org/10.13185/KK2018.03004

Olssen, M. (2020). Neoliberalism, globalisation, democracy: challenges for education. In Globalisation and Education (pp. 28-72). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429464454

Školkay, A. (2020). An exploratory study of global and local discourses on social media regulation. Global Media Journal-German Edition, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.22032/dbt.44942

Uyheng, J., Ng, L. H. X., & Carley, K. M. (2021). Active, aggressive, but to little avail: characterizing bot activity during the 2020 Singaporean elections. Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 27(3), 324-342. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10588-021-09332-1

Wennäkoski, A. A. (2022). The Freedom of speech in the Digital Era: Leveraging Its Constitutional and Social Ramifications. In YSEC Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions 2021: Triangulating Freedom of Speech (pp. 145-174). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/16495_2021_36

Wirtz, B. W., Weyerer, J. C., & Kehl, I. (2022). Governance of artificial intelligence: A risk and guideline-based integrative framework. Government Information Quarterly, 39(4), 101685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101685

Downloads

Published

2022-09-12

How to Cite

Magbanua, K. S. (2022). An Analysis of the Legal and Ethical Implications of Online Disinformation in the Philippines. Journal of Public Representative and Society Provision, 2(2), 72-79. https://doi.org/10.55885/jprsp.v2i2.201