Former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay raised concerns over PLDT and Smart Communications’ announcement that they would block websites hosting footage of school shootings and other acts of extreme violence.
The telco giant said this is to prevent its network from being a channel for content that glorifies violence and puts people at risk.
The move came after a spate of violent incidents in schools, the latest of which was a fatal shooting at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.
In a Facebook post, Hilbay said that while PLDT-Smart may have good intentions, its “unilateral censorship” could be seen as “knee jerk and overbroad.”
He also said it is dangerous compared to decision-making by individuals, families, and communities and turns the telco into a “thought police.”
“Centralized decision making by franchisees that offer access to content or information is always dangerous as opposed to decentralized decisions by individuals, parents, families, or communities. In this case, PLDT assumes the role of a thought police in the information highway, a power not part of its franchise because no such power can be delegated by Congress in the first place,” he said.
He said that by deciding what constitutes harmful online content, PLDT-Smart assumes discretion that it does not have and asserts that its executives know better. He said this could be a misuse of its legislative franchise.
“Banning ‘content that glorifies violence’ isn’t something even supreme courts in the US and Philippines have been confident enough to do. What makes PLDT wiser than these fallible institutions?” he said.
He also warned that even with PLDT’s ban, the websites will continue to exist and could be accessed through VPN.
“Information of this type cannot be banned without judicial order; the ‘ban’ simply makes access to information less easy,” he said.
He cited the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachments by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”