Our voices, livelihoods, and communities belong online.
Protect every Filipino’s freedom to speak, learn, organize, and connect. Demand an open, safe internet with privacy, due process, and accountability.
Why this matters
A student opening a study group. A freelancer meeting a client. A family checking in across oceans. A volunteer organizing help. A citizen asking a difficult question. Behind every connection is a person whose voice and opportunities matter.
When access to a platform can disappear abruptly, the consequences reach far beyond a single app. Work can be interrupted, learning disrupted, and communities cut off. People deserve to know who made the decision, what evidence supports it, how long it will last, and how it can be challenged.
On 24 September 2026, DZRH reported that the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) lifted its ban order against Discord after a meeting with the platform about compliance and teen safety. We welcome the decision. The episode makes a lasting public framework for platform restrictions urgent. Restoring access should be followed by transparency about what happened and safeguards against arbitrary disruption. Read the report from DZRH.
Our digital democracy depends on the freedom to exchange ideas, report wrongdoing, build communities, and hold power to account. Article III of the Philippine Constitution protects expression, peaceful assembly, petitioning government, and the privacy of communications, subject to its stated exceptions. These protections should guide how public authorities act online. Read the Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
Children deserve effective protection from exploitation, grooming, and violence. Platforms must take credible reports seriously, make help easy to reach, and cooperate with lawful investigations. Government should invest in trained investigators, survivor support, digital literacy, and targeted enforcement. Safety measures must protect privacy and preserve lawful access to the communities people rely on.
Public trust requires clear limits on power. Restrictions on lawful communication should have a stated legal basis, evidence that can be scrutinized, a defined scope and duration, and meaningful independent review. Personal information should be collected only for a lawful, necessary purpose and protected against misuse. Any approach to age assurance must minimize sensitive data collection and provide a fair way to correct mistakes.
We call on the DICT, CICC, and NTC to adopt safeguards within their existing legal authority, and on Congress to legislate additional safeguards where needed, developed openly with the people affected. Within 30 days of receiving this petition, we ask them to publish a response addressing the five demands below and announce a timetable for public consultation.
Sign for an internet where Filipinos can speak freely, learn confidently, earn a living, and build communities in safety. Every signature asks our institutions to protect both our security and our freedom. Our digital future belongs to all of us.
- The Angry Nerds
Further reading supplied by the campaign organizer, dated 24 September 2026: Philstar — Cybersecurity body lifts ban on Discord and Manila Bulletin — Philippines restricts Discord.
Nothing in this petition prevents content-specific blocking, preservation, disclosure, investigation, or other measures expressly authorized by law or a lawful judicial order, including measures protecting children from online sexual abuse or exploitation (OSAEC) and child sexual abuse or exploitation material (CSAEM). We ask for effective, targeted enforcement alongside safeguards against arbitrary blanket restrictions.
What we’re asking for
- 1
Protect lawful access. Adopt a public policy against arbitrary, blanket platform blocking. Require a clear legal basis and evidence, the least restrictive effective measure, necessity, proportionality, and limits on scope and duration. Provide prompt review by a court or other legally empowered body. Where existing law provides no adequate review mechanism, ask Congress to establish one.
- 2
Make decisions transparent and challengeable. To the maximum extent permitted by law, publish blocking and restoration orders, issuing authorities, legal grounds, scope, duration, and review routes. Allow legally justified redaction or delayed disclosure to protect children, victims, personal data, privileged material, active investigations, and national security. Give affected parties notice and a hearing, with narrow emergency exceptions and prompt review.
- 3
Safeguard privacy and secure communication. Require lawful, specific grounds for access to personal data, independent oversight, data minimization, and retention limits. Protect strong encryption while preserving compliance with lawful, particularized court orders, subpoenas, preservation duties, and statutory child-protection obligations. Assess privacy risks before age assurance and provide accessible ways to challenge errors.
- 4
Protect children through targeted, accountable action. Improve reporting and rapid responses to exploitation, grooming, and credible threats; strengthen lawful investigations, survivor support, and digital literacy; and require platforms to report meaningful safety outcomes while preserving lawful speech and access.
- 5
Build lasting safeguards with the public. Publish a response within 30 days of receiving this petition and a timetable for open consultation with users, young people, educators, workers, businesses, child-protection groups, and digital-rights advocates. Ask Congress to hold oversight hearings and address gaps in the law.
This is a community-led petition. It is not an official government consultation, and signing does not guarantee a government response.