Reddit given extension to establish Philippine office, none yet for Discord -CICC

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The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) on Wednesday said that it gave Reddit and Discord more time to put up their respective offices in the Philippines after the platforms expressed their willingness to work with the government in addressing online threats.

The CICC on Tuesday gave both platforms 24 hours to establish a Philippine presence within 24 hours to enhance collaboration with the government following the shooting at the Banga National High School in South Cotabato.

Reddit said that it would establish an office in the Philippines, while Discord reached out to say that it was willing to work with the CICC to address the issue.

“We decided to grant them an extension since they responded within the 24 hours, and we want to give them the opportunity to work with us because what we want is accountability and a clear mechanism for government to coordinate with the platforms,” CICC Executive Director Undersecretary Renato “Aboy” Paraiso said in a statement.

“While we welcome their commitment to work with us, we will not settle for anything less. This commitment must translate into concrete action, genuine accountability, faster response mechanisms and stronger protections for our Filipino children online,” he added.

The online meeting was attended by Reddit Vice President of Policy Jessica Ashooh, Deputy General Counsel Leslie Liu and Policy and Regulatory Affairs Manager Vijay Pamarathi. They discussed establishing “green lanes” or direct lines with Philippine authorities wherein the latter could flag potentially harmful content.

This would also involve online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC), child abuse and exploitation materials (CSAEM), and Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE).

Discord told the CICC that the newly rolled out Global Teen Experience would ensure that teenagers are placed in age-appropriate places on their platform.

Discord Senior Public Policy Advisor Vasundhara Singh said that users who cannot be placed in a specific age group will have to confirm their age through facial age estimation, with biometric data not being stored in Discord.

The shooting in South Cotabato is the third school shooting incident in 2026. In June, two students opened fire in a high school in Tacloban, killing three others. Not more than two months later, in August, another student shot and killed a schoolmate in Ateneo de Zamboanga before turning the gun on himself. –NB, GMA News