MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is urging Congress to pass legislation enforcing stricter policies on using social media platforms in the Philippines.
In an interview on Wednesday, DICT Secretary Henry Aguda expects the digital safety law to pass by the third quarter of 2026.
READ: Privacy, speech, and power: Groups push back vs DICT social media plan
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“For me, I hope by the third quarter, we have the law, so that by Christmas, mas malinis na ang Internet (the Internet will be safer),” Aguda said on the sidelines of the Digital Bayanihan Safety Summit 2026 in Intramuros, Manila.
Aguda said the proposed measure would impose age restrictions, require local moderation, establish complaint channels, and mandate a local corporate presence.
“This is not part of the law, but my suggestion is that before a user is allowed to access a platform, a safety video will play and then every year, it will be replayed,” he told reporters.
According to Aguda, lawmakers are consolidating various proposals into a single “mother bill” covering colocation, age restrictions, and content classification.
Pending the bill’s passage, the DICT will continue working with social media platforms to curb harmful online content, Aguda said.
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The DICT chief expressed frustration over YouTube’s response to takedown requests for deepfakes and disinformation.
“On YouTube, you will see a public situation that will cause a situation, but after a while, they will remove it. But it takes time,” he said.
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“For example, there was an earthquake in the south, disinformation could spread. We appreciate that such content is removed, there have been cases where we flagged it as fake but it took a long time before it was removed,” he added.
Aguda said the DICT will write a letter to YouTube to prevent the proliferation of harmful online content.
“We don’t want to suspend the platform. But we want to know how we could remove the harmful content,” he said.
Meanwhile, the DICT chief praised other platforms’ content moderation systems, citing TikTok’s ability to automatically remove harmful content. /pai INQ
