The Supreme Court (SC) today declared constitutional several provisions in Republic Act 10175 or Cybercrime Law including the one that penalizes online libel.
Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te told reporters in a press briefing that the online libel provision in the Cybercrime Law is constitutional with respect to the original author of the post.
Justices of the high court voted in session to declare constitutional Section 4 (c) (4) of the law, which penalizes acts of libel as defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) committed through a computer system.
This means only the source of a malicious e-mail, post on social media like Facebook or any website, tweet on Twitter can be held liable under RA 10175, and not those who received or reacted to the material on social media or other forms of online communication.
Activists who questioned the legality of the law had asked the court to strike down several of its provisions for violation of the right to free speech.
The SC also declared constitutional a provision on aiding or abetting in the commission of cybercrime such as illegal access, computer-related fraud, computer-related identity theft, and cybersex.
The High Court, however, declared unconstitutional the power of the Department of Justice to take down computer data.
Other provisions that were ordered scrapped by the SC for being unconstitutional are those that pertain to penalties for posting of unsolicited commercial communications and that which authorizes the collection or recording of traffic data in real-time.
Source: http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2014/02/18/1291891/update-sc-declares-law-online-libel-constitutional
http://www.ucanews.com/news/philippine-supreme-court-makes-controversial-ruling-on-libel/70317
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