If talks with Meta fail, cases may follow, says DICT’s Aguda

MANILA, Philippines — While the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is willing to sit down again and discuss with social media company Meta how they can jointly protect children, continuous failure to arrive at an agreement may lead to cases, Secretary Henry Aguda said.

Aguda, in a press briefing at the Batasang Pambansa complex, said that they have already discussed with Meta — owner and operator of social media sites Facebook, Instagram, Threads and messaging apps Messenger and Whatsapp — measures to keep children safe from possible harm.

However, despite both parties being on the same side of issues, no memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed — prompting Aguda to personally write to Meta founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg.

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“With Meta, maybe even before Roblox, before Discord, before Reddit, we have been talking with them for a year.  We have sent two letters to Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, we also talked with their Asia-Pacific leadership in Singapore,” Aguda told reporters before DICT’s budget was discussed by the House of Representatives.

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READ: Anticybercrime body sets deadline for Reddit, Discord

“We already have a draft MOU containing all of the safety protocols we requested and demanded.  They agreed with it, but up to now, I want to inform the public, this draft has not been signed,” he added.

According to Aguda, they have asked the United States (US) government, through the Philippine embassy there, to help him and other local authorities to discuss these matters with Zuckerberg.

But if all else fails, Aguda said they may resort to legal action against Meta, just like what the US and the European Union (EU) did, resulting in fines for the social media giant.

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“Now, look at what the other countries did, they did not ban Facebook in the US, not in the EU, but they filed cases for legitimate damages that they felt affected the youth. You can check this, there is a recent US$ 18 billion award imposed by the US government against Facebook, and another €2.7 billion from the EU,” Aguda said.

“For us, as I said, if they do not want to talk, maybe we can discuss this in court, so that it will be the court that will determine if they are liable and accountable to Facebook users, to young people addicted, and those who were victimized,” he added.

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When pressed if DICT will push for a total ban on Facebook and other Meta sites, Aguda admitted that it will be hard to do so due to the economic and social implications that will be brought by a shutdown. However, the DICT chief said that they are also looking at the possible social impact brought by an unabated and unsafe use of the social media sites.

“Now, I can’t say what would eventually happen, I am sorry to those expecting a clear and white yes or no answer, it’s hard because you saw what happened with Discord, right, there is an immediate threat to the youth but we have fellow Filipinos, whom we listened to, saying that it should not be banned,” he said.

“That is what will happen with us for Facebook, there will be a greater economic and social impact brought by a Facebook ban, but at the same time, there is also a huge social impact if we do not resort to a ban. So that’s a hard topic to discuss,” he added.

The push for cooperation between the Philippine government and social media sites came amid fears that communities and conversations on certain platforms have contributed to a growing influence of Nihilistic violent extremism (NVE) groups.

NVE is believed to be one of the reasons behind the recent school shootings in the Philippines. On Tuesday, it was announced that Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) gave online community and messaging applications Reddit and Discord a letter last Monday, to inform them of a deadline in establishing a presence in the country.

CICC on Wednesday allowed Reddit to establish a presence in the country beyond the initial 24-hour deadline set.  Then on Thursday, the CICC said it had lifted the ban on Discord after its representatives talked with local officials.

During the same briefing, Aguda and CICC chief Undersecretary Renato Paraiso have appealed to critics of their ban on Discord to understand that the protection of people’s lives takes precedence over the continuous availability of these social networking sites.

READ: DICT, CICC tell Discord ban naysayers: Lives are more important

School-related violence has seen an uptick in the country over the recent months — with the incident at Banga National High School in South Cotabato last Friday being the third gun attack inside campuses in only three months.

Last Aug. 18, the Ateneo de Zamboanga University confirmed that two individuals died after a shooting incident inside their campus.

READ: Zamboanga City school shooting suspect dead — DILG 

Then on June 22, three students were killed and five others were wounded when two suspects — both minors and students — opened fire inside the San Jose National High School campus in Tacloban City, Leyte.

Due to the incidents, several lawmakers and government officials have called for a social media ban for children, amid fears that unrestricted online access has influenced students to initiate shooting incidents.

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There is a belief that the perpetrators in both incidents were supposedly exposed to violent content online or joined groups engaged in NVE. /das