Duterte vetos surveillance law in the Philippines, protects his troll farms
Last Friday, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte decided to veto a bill that would have required Filipinos to present valid ID when buying a mobile SIM card, citing concerns about “dangerous state intrusion and surveillance” that could threaten people’s rights.
This is pretty rich coming from Duterte, whose government has digitized and weaponized mass surveillance tools at an impressive scale. What’s really going on here?
Bills like this have been adopted in more than 150 countries from Bangladesh to Tajikistan. They’re often rolled out under the guise of preventing crimes committed via mobile phone, like fraud or extortion. But they also lead to the creation of huge troves of personal data that governments can use for all kinds of things, absent strong data protection laws. Rules like this also can have grave consequences for free speech and the rights of marginalized groups, who need to preserve their privacy in order to communicate and work safely.
But this one had a special twist, that experts suspect is the real reason behind Duterte’s veto. Language added to the bill shortly before it reached the president’s desk would have required people to use their real names and phone numbers when setting up social media accounts, in an effort to crack down on trolls, bots and other fraudulent activity online.