PHL bloggers group: SOPA, PIPA to hurt promotion of human rights.

 Saying the Internet has become a vital tool in the free sharing of ideas, a human rights group on Sunday said the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills of the US pose a threat to the exercise of the right to freedom of speech.

A group of Filipino human rights defenders and bloggers also said the SOPA and the PIPA, if approved by the US Congress, could jeopardize the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines.

Earlier reports said that due to inernational pressure, the US backed down on the two anti-piracy bills.

In a statement, the Human Rights Online Philippines (HROnlinePH) said, “we use Internet as a platform in the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. Limitations on this vital tool would jeopardize our work.”

A report on GMA News Online said “These two pieces of legislation, both of which supposedly aim to protect intellectual property rights, have far-reaching implications on the Internet as we know it —potentially affecting the Philippines’ 30 million web users, or one out of every five Pinoys.”

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