Congress urged to adopt global standards in online content moderation

By Filane Mikee Cervantes, Philippine News Agency

He said neutralizing malicious online content “is the big fight” the nation should be waging. (Pixabay photo)

MANILA – Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Jay Ruiz on Friday called on Congress to pass laws aligning the country’s content moderation on social media with internationally accepted standards.

Speaking at the House of Representatives Tri-Committee’s inquiry into fake news, Ruiz suggested replicating the European Union’s Digital Services Act as a model for curbing online disinformation, hate speech, and harmful content, while protecting free speech.

“What do we want on the PCO side?

We urge Congress to join our digital crusade against combating fake news by strengthening our laws by introducing internationally accepted policies and standards for content moderation on social media,” Ruiz said.

He pointed out that many social media platforms, including TikTok and YouTube, do not have local offices in the Philippines, making content moderation and enforcement slow and ineffective.

“The platforms – Meta, TikTok, YouTube – are foreign platforms. They do not have a base here. When you complain for these posts that we can take down, it takes a long time,” Ruiz said. “So, we have to focus on the platforms, first of all, to self-regulate them.”

He also proposed that the PCO work closely with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to address the spread of misinformation.

“If you want self-regulation or maybe come up with an operation system between the PCO, DOJ, and the DICT to identify these fake posts. To identify fake information,” he said.

Ruiz warned that the unchecked spread of fake news, along with hate speech and even explicit content, is deepening divisions among Filipinos.

“You see what’s happening to us? We are being divided online, it’s very polarized, and yet it’s Filipinos and Filipinos fighting each other. It’s not good for the country to see our countrymen being divided by hate speech, by pornography that’s very easily accessed by our generation,” he said.

Ruiz emphasized that combating fake news should be a national priority, comparing it to previous government efforts against illegal drugs.

He warned that younger generations are particularly vulnerable to online disinformation, as they spend increasing amounts of time in the digital space.

“We now live in two worlds: the cyber world and the real world. The children right now spend more time on the cyber world. And if you give them constant disinformation, if you give them constant lies and negative news, what will happen to the next generation of Filipinos?” he said.

He said neutralizing malicious online content “is the big fight” the nation should be waging.

“I urge everybody here, let’s get our acts together. We are not the enemies. We should stand together. The enemy is fake news,” he said.