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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider IACAT expresses dismay over social media, messaging firms not helping in fight vs human trafficking

IACAT expresses dismay over social media, messaging firms not helping in fight vs human trafficking

Published Sep 20, 2023 07:00 am

The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) on Wednesday, Sept. 20, expressed its dismay over the lack of cooperation from companies running messaging applications in helping the government's fight against human trafficking.

Justice Undersecretary Nicholas L. Ty, the Department of Justice's (DOJ) undersecretary in charge of IACAT, pointed out during a public briefing hosted by PTV the difficulties of dealing with companies running social media and messaging applications that are being used in human trafficking.

“‘Yung pinakamalaking challenge d’yan ay ‘yung mga maliliit na mga application (The biggest challenge are the small applications),” Ty said.

He cited that among these applications is the messaging app Telegram.

“Sa intel namin madaming mga nangyayari through Telegram (Based on intelligence we have gathered there are many things taking place through Telegram),” he pointed out.

“‘Yung Telegram hindi namin makontak ‘yan (Telegram cannot be contacted),” he lamented.

Because of this, Ty said “‘yung mga illegal activities nangyayari sa Telegram (the illegal activities taking place in Telegram), we have to explore alternative ways to gather intelligence and investigate.”

“Unlike Meta or Twitter or Google na meron kaming kausap, sa Telegram wala kami makausap d’yan (Unlike Meta or Twitter or Google where we can talk to someone, we don’t have anyone to talk to on Telegram),” he pointed out.

Under the country’s amended Trafficking Law and Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) Law, Ty said “may mga obligasyon ang ating mga social media platforms to take down ‘yung mga content na ni-request ng mga law enforcement (social media platforms are obliged to take down content at the request of law enforcement) as well as to provide data that can be used as evidence against perpetrators.”

“Isang challenge nga lang dito kasi ‘yung mga social media platforms na ‘to hindi naman ito based sa Pilipinas (One of the challenges here is that these social media platforms are not based in the Philippines),” he stressed.

“So minsan hindi ganoon kadali sila kausap but nag-eeffort naman lalo na ‘yung Meta (So they are difficult to talk to at times but they do make efforts like Meta),” he added.

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