There’s a big stink about the recently passed Anti-Cybercrime law, mostly about how it’s infringing on free speech and it’s the equivalent of declaring martial law online. While the law officially takes effect on Oct. 3, some government agencies have taken it upon themselves to remind people about the what the consequences of the new law would be. An unfortunate commenter on the Philippine National Police’s Facebook page found this out the hard way when the admin of the site took issue with one of his comments. Archie Arevalo negatively commented in one of the stories posted on the FB page and the admin of the page dropped a veiled threat referring to the recently enacted law, and we quote: “Archie Arevalo watch your word. Foul word against our police can now be use as evidence now to file a case against you in a court of law.” The post have since been deleted on the PNP FB page, but screenshots of it is now doing the rounds in Facebook.
Now, if that’s not an ominous threat, we don’t know what is. The PNP’s FB admin also took it upon themselves to take a screenshot of the exchange and post it on their page for all to see, perhaps to serve as an example to others. There’s also a shared photo now making the rounds in FB wherein the PNP’s FB admin boasts that they now have the capability to track an owner of a Facebook account, courtesy of the PNP Anti-Transnational and Cyber Crime Division (ATCCD) of the CIDG and equipment provided by the US Dept. of State’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program. If this is true, this means that the PNP is using equipment, knowledge and expertise provided by the US for anti-terrorist duties to enforce the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act.
[UPDATE] This PNP FB account claims that the PNP FB page where the original post came from is not connected with them in any way. The original PNP FB account where the screenshots above were taken has mysteriously vanished, though several FB users are saying that until today, that particular account was posting updates about the PNP and other information about the law enforcement agency, which, to us, means that it’s a legit account used by the PNP to share information. You draw your own conclusions. We’ve attached the picture of the screenshot of the original page before it was taken down.