Pinoy hackers take down government sites in protest to the Cybercrime Law

A group of Filipino hackers made its presence felt by simultaneously taking down a number of government sites as a sign of protest on the recently passed Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, most especially the libel portion of this bill which they express ends the Freedom of Expression in the Philippines.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (now back to normal) was the first site reported to be defaced late last night. The group known as Anonymous Philippines replaced the landing page with their own showing their sentiments on the adoption of the 80-year old libel laws to the Anti-Cybercrime Law.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 is the most notorious act ever witnessed in the cyber-history of the Philippines, and the language of the bill is cunningly designed to make you think it only applies to individuals who are deep in cyber-technology and doesn’t apply to everyone, but some part of the bill basically says it can imprison anyone who commits libel either by written messages, comments, blogs, or posts in sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or any other comment-spaces of other social media in the Internet.

It’s not clear whether the hacking will continue but all the group is asking for is a revision to the said bill for the “betterment of the Filipino denizens.”

Other sites that followed suit include: Philippine Anti-Piracy Team, Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage Systems, The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Inc, Region 3 “˜s Department of Environment and Natural Resources, IDEA.org, and Smokefree-DOH although some have managed to reclaim their site as of this posting.