MANILA – The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said American instant messaging and VoIP (voice over internet protocol) social platform Discord is willing to hire a Philippine law firm to serve as its local representative, as the government continues to explore ways to strengthen the accountability of online platforms.
In a statement on Friday, the CICC said the proposal was discussed during a meeting between CICC officials, led by Executive Director Undersecretary Renato Paraiso, and Discord Senior Public Policy Advisor for Asia-Pacific Vasundhara Singh on Thursday at the CICC headquarters in Quezon City.
The meeting follows Discord’s earlier commitment to work with the Philippine government to strengthen online child safety and promote safer digital spaces amid rising threats of online sexual abuse or exploitation of children (OSAEC) and Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE).
During the meeting, Singh discussed possible forms of local representation Discord could establish to comply with the CICC’s request and a proposed legislation in Congress.
“If the local presence is sufficient, we already spoke to your office, and we’re happy to find a law firm that represents us, as we’ve done in Korea, Japan, a lot of these countries,” Singh said.
Paraiso said a local representative must have sufficient authority to address significant or urgent issues, rather than serving merely as a nominal point of contact.
“If we’re gearing towards not setting up a Philippine office, not a physical office, but more of a Philippine representative, it has to have some sort of power and discretion to decide over various issues that are, like I said, imminent, crucial, or difficult,” he said.
Singh cautioned that mandatory physical offices could place a disproportionate burden on smaller technology businesses, including startups.
She urged officials to distinguish between appointing a local legal representative and maintaining a physical office as a requirement for operating in the country.
Both parties agreed that the specific requirements for Discord’s local representation would depend on the final wording of the relevant legislation and the obligations ultimately imposed on covered platforms. (Raymond Carl Dela Cruz/PNA)
