Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

HOUSE BILL ny 443

Introduced by Representative Michael L. Romero

EXPLANATORY NOTE

In the republic of the Philippines. there is a very intense
Identity aggregation of products like Google and Facebook that is pushing
users towards anonymous services. Both of them are making headlines, each
promising an escape from the ruthless scrutiny of mainstream social networks,

While these services are great for providing a momentary distraction. they are
still doing nothing to address the core Problem of online identity.

In the country today, there are very few situations where it is useful or even
desirable to be anonymous outside of explicitly anti-social or criminal behavior.
The standard examples of corporate leaks. personal confessions, honest reviews,
etc., do not benefit from true anonymity. Instead, people want to expose some
subset of their identity and nothing more. Likewise, if someone confesses
something about their personal life, they want fo do it with a supportive
community and not to strangers who do not care about or have a lasting
telationship with them.

It is not about being anonymous or even pretending to be someone else. It is
about controlling which subsets of true facets of a person are relevant in
different social contexts. This is fundamentally not deceptive but actually
enables one to be authentic.


Outside of the Internet, it is extremely difficult to find out information about a
person so that we can easily and naturally compartmentalize our experiences.
This person is not a different person in these settings, it is always the same person,
but different parts of their identity are relevant,

All These social media giants of the world want to aggregate all of these
Personas into a single identity. They want to do this, no! because they think this is
good for users or because this is how they think society works, but rather
because it helps them monetize user interactions. However, this type of
aggregation is a very bad deal for users.

With this comes in the form of hyper-targeted advertisements. This is a scary
Proposition. Even though users primarily are reacting to this “stalking” factor,
there is actually a delicate but much more dangerous force at work.

This House Bill seeks to persecute and penalize social media identity theft
comparable to that of a regular theft offense under our existing penal codes. To
foster the imposition of all existing policies and guidelines and provide stiffer
penalties and sanctions-for ail offenders.

Thus, the garly passage of this bill is earnestly requested.

ROMERO Ph.D.


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

HOUSE BILL nB443
—..]4

Introduced by Representative Michael L. Romero
———————  SeSeeeeeeSeessSsSSSSSsMMsssssFMMMffsef
AN ACT

PENALIZING ALL FORMS OF MEDIA IDENTITY THEFT, ANY PERSON
CREATING, PRETENDING AND STEALING THE IDENTITY OF
ANOTHER PERSON, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in

Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. DECLARATION OF POLICY — it is hereby declared a policy of the
state to protect and uphold the social media identity of any person;

a. Any person creating, pretending and stealing the identity of any other
person in social media and in the intemet shall be subjected to identity
theft.

b. These social media identity theft shall be treated to penalties that are
comparable to that of regular theft offenses under the existing penal
codes.


cc. The Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of investigation
(NB!) cyber crime division and the Internet Service Provider (ISP) host
like Facebook, Twitter and Google shall assist in finding and
persecuting this offenders.

SECTION 2. TRANSITORY PROVISION - Existing industries, businesses and
offices affected by the implementation of this Act shall be given six (6)
months transitory period from the effectivity of the IRR or such other period
as may be determined, to comply with the requirements of this Act.

SECTION 3, IMPLEMENTING RULES AND REGULATIONS - The departments
and agencies charged, to be lead by the PNP and NBI with carrying out
the provisions of this Act, shall within sixty (60) days after the effectivity of
this Act, formulate the necessary rules and regulations for its effective
implementation.

SECTION 4. REPEALING CLAUSE - A\ll laws, decrees, executive orders, rules
and regulations, or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act
are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

SECTION 5. SEPARABILITY CLAUSE - If, for any reason, any section or
Provision of this Act is held unconstitutional or invalid, the other sections or
provisions hereof shall not be affected thereby.

SECTION 6. EFFECTIVITY CLAUSE — This Act shall take effect after fifteen (15)
days from its publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2)
national newspapers of general circulation whichever comes earlier.

Approved,