Philippines Lifts Discord Ban, Asks NTC to Restore Access

MANILA, Philippines – The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) announced it had lifted a ban blocking social communications platform Discord from properly working in the Philippines and had asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to start the process of helping to unblock Discord accordingly. During a streamed press conference on Thursday, September 24, CICC Executive Director Renato Paraiso confirmed the ban against Discord had been lifted after the CICC — a unit of the Department of Information and Communications Technology — had direct talks with Discord management. The CICC had on Tuesday, September 22 given Discord and social discussion forum Reddit 24 hours to establish a presence in the Philippines. The government sought to enhance cooperation with the two companies to make response times faster in the event of emergencies requiring content or user-account takedowns. According to Paraiso, concrete steps were outlined to improve the service for Filipinos. This will apparently include a “green lane” so the Philippine government can raise concerns and coordinate with Discord representatives on possible content takedowns or actions against threat actors. This included developing streamlined processes to make investigation requests from government agencies faster as well. Paraiso said, “We empathize with the public,” as Discord users of all stripes were unduly affected by the blocking, including legitimate users. He added, however, that the blockage was meant to allow the Philippines to stand up against the rise of nihilistic violent extremism and protect children’s welfare. According to Paraiso, preventing further violent events and the grooming of vulnerable people towards violence was sufficient reason for their swift actions. Asked about what drove the 24-hour timeline for Discord and Reddit to establish a Philippine presence, Paraiso considered the forward movement with Discord a win for Filipino children, the Philippines, and the related platform as regards online child safety. – Rappler.com