First of two parts
THE government is racing to take control of social media platforms with the goal of protecting the youth, preserving the public square and policing the latter. The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has issued show-cause orders to Meta, Roblox, Reddit and Discord for non-compliance with registration requirements under the Data Privacy Act and NPC Circular 16-03 (Manila Times, Sept. 23). Meanwhile, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) gave Discord and Reddit a 24-hour ultimatum to set up a presence in the Philippines after a third school shooting (Rappler.com, Sept. 22). Some ISPs then reportedly blocked Discord. Tests and user reports showed it was blocked on Globe, GOMO, and PLDT. The DICT and CICC announced on Thursday that the restriction was lifted after talks with the platform (NewsBytes.com, Sept. 24). The first action used existing law and the second tested its limits. The country needs both platform accountability and limits on state power, and this week showed why.
Accountability gap
Filipinos are among the platforms’ most valuable users, yet accountability has been slow to arrive. A congressman noted that the Philippines is Meta’s fifth-largest user base globally, yet the company has no satellite office here (Philippine Star, Sept. 18). The House tri-committee that examined disinformation reached a similar conclusion in 2025. It found that the absence of local headquarters makes it extremely difficult for agencies to demand accountability or coordinate takedowns, and that no Philippine entity can be held directly liable for abuses.
Recent events necessitated the urgency. On Aug. 18, a school shooting at a Zamboanga-based university was livestreamed and stayed online for 14 minutes, then was re-uploaded more than 1,700 times before it was removed. A third shooting followed on Sept. 18 in South Cotabato. There, the interior secretary said, a suspect had influenced the 16-year-old shooter through online conversations. Abroad, Meta agreed in August to pay up to $18 billion to settle US civil cases over teen addiction to Facebook and Instagram (Philippine Star, Sept. 22). The case for stronger child-safety rules stands on this record.
Pending legislation
Congress has many proposals, and they differ from one another. HB 9965, the proposed Children’s Social Media Safety Act, filed June 29, 2026, would impose fines of up to P50 million for non-compliance with age verification, parental controls and harmful-content safeguards. It would also authorize restricting or prohibiting a platform’s operation for repeated, serious violations, subject to due process. A House committee’s substitute bill would fully ban social media for children under 13 and restrict short videos and chat groups for ages 13 to 18. That differs from the Senate version: Senate Bill 2424 (filed Aug. 25, 2026), the proposed Child Online Safety and Protection Act, sets the minimum age at 16. HB 4786, filed Sept. 23, 2025, would treat social media like broadcasting, requiring a legislative franchise, a local office and a grievance system. HB 8603, the Verified Social Media Account Act, filed March 17, 2026, would require every account to be verified through the Philippine Identification System (aka national ID). On Sept. 10, it was reported in biometricupdate.com that Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda expects a stronger regulatory bill to become law within two months — which I doubt as unrealistic and ungrounded.
These pending bills have four major problems which must be solved. However, in their present form, none of these bills can address these issues. (I will write more about this in next week’s column.)
State bows to the Constitution
The stated goal is reachability: someone local who can be served, questioned and held liable. CICC Executive Director Renato Paraiso said the aim is not to have platforms police the internet for the government but to be reachable, accountable and responsive. Reddit and Discord pledged to cooperate, and Reddit committed to setting up a local office (Business World, Sept. 23). Meta has committed to a local office as well. In my view, a legislative franchise regime is a heavier instrument than this objective requires, because it gives the state a licensing lever over speech platforms — which can be regarded as unconstitutional. A statute could instead do other things that do not transgress the Constitution. (More about this next week.)
The Philippines does not have to choose between children, the public’s rights and the Constitution. Without any doubt, social media platforms should be accountable to Philippine laws. However, the state should be accountable to the same Constitution that binds everyone else.
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