MANILA, Philippines - The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) on Wednesday extended the deadline for online platforms Reddit and Discord to comply with its directive to set up local offices in the Philippines.
CICC Executive Director Undersecretary Renato Paraiso said the agency decided to extend the deadline after both Reddit and Discord responded within the original 24-hour ultimatum.
The agency said the two platforms engaged CICC officials in online meetings on Wednesday to strengthen cooperation and discuss measures to ensure children’s online safety.
"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,” Paraiso said in a statement.
The CICC on Tuesday had ordered Reddit and Discord to designate a resident agent within 24 hours who could facilitate coordination with Philippine authorities and establish a channel through which the government could exercise jurisdiction or risk having their access restricted in the country.
They were also ordered to explain their safety measures to protect children from online groomers and exposure to violent content, including their age-verification measures.
During the meeting, the CICC said Reddit Vice President of Policy Jessica Ashooh, Deputy General Counsel Leslie Liu and Policy and Regulatory Affairs Manager Vijay Pamarathi discussed establishing “green lanes” or direct channels where Philippine authorities may flag potentially harmful content for expedited review and possible takedown.
Reddit also committed to establish an office in the Philippines and create a team that would coordinate with the CICC, although it did not provide a specific timeline for these measures.
The CICC said it would provide Reddit with relevant information and literature, including Philippine laws and regulations, to help the platform better understand the local framework governing online safety and cybercrime.
Meanwhile, Discord separately reached out to the CICC in a letter expressing concern over the recent incidents in the Philippines and its willingness to work directly with the agency.
Amid scrutiny over the use of Discord in communities associated with Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE), the platform said it was prepared to brief the CICC on its newly rolled out Global Teen Experience, which it said includes age-assurance measures designed to place teenage users in an age-appropriate experience by default.
Discord Senior Public Policy Advisor Vasundhara Singh said in the letter that under the new system, users who cannot be confidently placed into an age group through account-levels signals may confirm their age through its privacy-preserving methods.
CICC said Discord also offered to brief them on its Family Center tools and its Kodex system, which allows law enforcement agencies to submit lawful takedown and data requests and receive fast-tracked responses.
