The country’s primary digital security and cyberthreat coordinating agency has sought to block the website used to livestream Tuesday’s deadly school shooting in Zamboanga City.
Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) Undersecretary Renato Paraiso on Thursday told a Senate panel that the gore and shock content website, which is no longer accessible from the Philippines, was being used to connect viewers to messaging platforms where similar content could potentially be shared.
‘We’ve already recommended the blocking of the website within the Philippine jurisdiction. But the website’s following is not really on the website. That’s where the videos are streamed, but their [followers] usually talk, discuss, maybe radicalize, on separate messaging platforms,’ Paraiso told the Senate women and children committee.
The committee is investigating the Aug. 18 shooting in Ateneo de Zamboanga University (AdZU) involving a Grade 8 student who allegedly opened fire on campus, while streaming the entire event to a website and to social media using a body camera. A Grade 10 student was killed before the alleged shooter took his own life.
No jurisdiction
The incident was also streamed on Meta’s social media platform, Facebook, but it took five minutes before authorities reported the content.
According to Paraiso, the video remained online for another nine minutes before it was taken down.
He explained that the CICC does not have direct jurisdiction over social media, gaming, messaging or streaming platforms and, therefore, cannot independently remove content from these services.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, committee chair, then called on Meta to ensure their social media platforms are safe.
Meta did not send a representative to the hearing.
‘Meta itself has to do better. It gets a lot of benefits from the platform. It shouldn’t allow that kind of content to go viral,’ Hontiveros said.
‘This committee is calling out Meta. You have to do better. Clean up your mess, your garbage on your powerful platform, don’t leave it all to the CICC,’ she added.
Paraiso noted that no law directs a government agency to order the removal of livestreams and other harmful content from online platforms.
He proposed that legislators pass a law giving specific law enforcement authorities jurisdiction over messaging platforms, such as Telegram and Discord, where violent content is accessible and extremist groups have been reported to gather.
Online safety
In the same hearing, the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) said parents should not be blamed for failing to protect their children from inappropriate online content.
GDAP president Ria Lu said many parents may be unaware of the safety features already available on devices and online platforms and do not know how to activate them.
Lu cited instances where parents may unknowingly expose their children to such content by allowing them to use their phones, which may not have parental controls or restrictions.
She said educating parents about these tools should be among the first steps in addressing children’s online safety.
Beyond parental awareness, Lu also proposed incorporating digital literacy into elementary and high school curriculum so children learn how to navigate online spaces safely.
‘Implement classes or subjects inside elementary and high school on how to navigate in the digital world, because one of the weird things that we have right now is we just assume that our children know how to deal with themselves in the digital world,’ Lu said.
Children should instead be taught to become responsible ‘digital citizens’ who know how to protect themselves from bad actors and avoid becoming harmful actors themselves, she said.
Lu urged lawmakers and stakeholders to focus on both sides of digital safety, equipping parents with knowledge about existing controls while teaching children how to responsibly navigate the digital world