A report by global rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) on the extent and impact of internet trolling in the country, particularly on cause-oriented youth groups, said that the anonymity of the aggressors and lack of trust in government mechanisms have forced many student activists to accept their online harassment and the resulting psychological distress as normal.
The report, titled “Left to their own devices: The chilling effects of online harassment among young human rights defenders in the Philippines,” surveyed and interviewed 94 respondents aged 18 to 24 last year.
The young activists who said their experienced different forms of harassment were involved in community journalism, community organization, environmental protection, and education reform.
Most of them directly encountered trolling; doxing, or the publication of sensitive personal information; verbal violence; and being Red-tagged due to their affiliation with progressive student organizations.
Many of them reported feeling compelled to normalize the effects of online harassment due to perceived inefficiency and other barriers available to redress mechanisms, both from social media platforms and state institutions, the report said.
According to AI, there is a “pervasive mistrust in reporting mechanisms [that] discourages young human rights defenders from seeking redress.” It added that “many feel that these systems are either complicit or incapable of providing meaningful support.”
In the case of those who were Red-tagged by government entities such as the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), reporting would mean appealing to the same entities responsible for their harassment.
The “weak or fragmented” mechanisms of educational institutions also become a hindrance to seeking accountability for the online attacks as they are “overly bureaucratic and often ineffective.”
AI said the student activists were demoralized by merely exercising their rights as they felt they had no one to turn to. Along with the immediate chilling effect of online attacks is the psychological distress that would leave them emotionally shaken.
Belonging to a cause oriented group in this country has always been a challenge, as they have to fight, not only for their respective causes, but also against trolls, and even persecution from their own government that is supposed to provide protection for all citizens, regardless of belief. If those Filipinos only knew and could believe that they could turn to the authorities for help, their burden and distress would not be as heavy.
Hopefully our government can find the ways and means to convince all citizens that it can and will always provide protection they require from all threats, from killers, kidnappers, harassment, and even internet trolls.*
