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The Philippines is weighing a new anti-disinformation law, but digital rights advocates and researchers warn that the leading proposals could give the government sweeping powers while doing little to stop the networks that actually drive online influence campaigns.
In February, President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr asked Congress to prioritise 21 measures before adjourning in June, including an anti-disinformation law that he said should be “balanced” – fighting fake news while maintaining freedom of expression.
The impact of troll networks, paid influence and covert political amplification is already well known in the Philippines, where organised online disinformation helped shape Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016 presidential campaign and political discourse since. A 2017 University of Oxford study said his campaign had spent US$200,000 on trolls.
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But critics say the proposed laws risk targeting speech instead of those systems, giving the state wide discretion to define what is false.
Congress does not lack ideas on how to tackle the problem, with 14 bills filed in the House of Representatives and 11 in the Senate.
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The proposal drawing the sharpest scrutiny is House Bill 2697, the “Anti-Fake News and Disinformation Act”, filed by the president’s son, Representative Ferdinand Alexander Marcos.
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