DICT considers ban on Telegram

MANILA, Philippines – In a latest interview with DZRH’s Dos Por Dos, DICT Secretary Henry Aguda was contemplating a authorities ban on the Telegram app because of the platform’s fame for the proliferation of pornography and scams.

Telegram is a multi-platform messaging app that has gained recognition lately as a substitute messaging app to Viber, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Telegram customers have the power to cover their very own telephone numbers and as a substitute show a username. As a result of Telegram operates with this additional layer of anonimity, customers can have a number of Telegram profiles in a single telephone.

Aguda stated that the DICT has been assembly with different social networking platforms like Meta, the mother or father firm of Fb, Instagram, and WhatsApp to search out methods to curb on-line pornography, monetary scams, and deepfake content material. Telegram has been related as the popular platform for these actions to proliferate because of the secretive nature of its user-base.

“In line with what we agreed is non-negotiable. Watch this now on social media, inform me should you see that one, on-line sexual exploitation and abuse of kids. I stated if I see one other one, they are going to be offended with me however I’ll block them.” (What we now have agreed on is non-negotiable. If we see on-line sexual exploitation and abuse of kids on these platforms, individuals can get mad at me however I’ll nonetheless have these platforms blocked.)

In line with Eli Rabadon, co-founder of DVCode, a blockchain growth software program firm, “Historical past tells us one thing easy: that unhealthy actors don’t disappear, they migrade. Encryption just isn’t the enemy. It protects journalists. It protects whistleblowers. It protects strange residents from identification theft. When you normalize platform bans as first response, you create uncertainty within the digital ecosystem.”

Aguda stated that the DICT has been coordinating intently with the PNP and the NBI to fight unhealthy actors on-line because the Philippines has been plagued with monetary scams, often within the type of social engineering as the primary technique hackers acquire management of on-line accounts.