Human Rights Online Philippines

Widespread social media blackout vs Cybercrime Law
A.M. MARZOÑA, GMA NEWS
October 2, 2012

In support of the movement to repeal the recently passed Anti-Cybercrime Act, Filipino netizens on Tuesday turned their Facebook and Twitter profile pictures to black. The movement started at daybreak and quickly gained momentum over the day until social media were awash with blacked-out status updates and profile pics.

Engaged social media users dubbed the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 or Republic Act 10175 a veritable “Cyber Martial Law” that threatened Internet users‘ freedom of expression by way of a provision on online libel, inserted into the bill only during the bicameral conference.

In addition to using images of protest, netizens also posted comments with black blocks to simulate the possible censorship the Anti-Cybercrime Act might soon impose among bloggers and even the most casual users of social media.

On Twitter, words were blacked out to render incomplete phrases and sentences, eventually turning everything into a fill-in-the-blank meme:

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