On 02 February 2022, the Philippine House of Representatives and Senate of the Philippines ratified the SIM Card Registration Act aimed for end-users to be accountable for their usage of mobile communications by mandating SIM Card registration — according to the proposed legislation.
After several internal discussions between the Mozilla Philippines Community (MozillaPH) and the Global Public Policy team at Mozilla, last 05 April 2022, our colleague Udbhav Tiwari, Mozilla Senior Manager – Global Public Policy, posted this article on the Mozilla Open Policy & Advocacy blog site.
In his post, Udbhav stated, “While well-intentioned, the Philippines’ Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Card Registration Act will set a worrying precedent for the privacy and anonymity of people on the internet. In its current state, approved by the Philippine Congress but awaiting Presidential assent, the law contains provisions requiring social media companies to mandatorily verify the real names and phone numbers of users that create accounts on their platform. Such a move will not only limit the anonymity that is essential online (for example, for whistle-blowing and protection from stalkers) but also reduce the privacy and security they can expect from private companies.”
Earlier this week, the leadership of MozillaPH forwarded this letter (see below) to the Office of the President to urge H.E. Rodrigo Roa Duterte to exercise his veto power on the said legislation, which according to several sources had already reached the president’s desk and will lapse into law by Sunday, 17 April 2022.
As MozillaPH, we do not oppose having a SIM Card Registration Law in the Philippines. However, certain provisions in the current version of the proposed legislation may set a worrying precedent for the privacy and anonymity of the Filipino people on the Internet as it will require social media companies to mandatorily verify the real names and phone numbers on their platforms.
