Earlier this week, subscribers of PLDT and Smart found out that their ISP was blocking chng.it, the URL shortener of the petition site Change.org, without warning.
Change.org is a website platform where users can organize petition campaigns and solicit signatures for various causes. When sharing a signature campaign page, Change.org provides users with a shortened URL starting with https://chng.it.
While working for some, other users reported that the URL-shortened site couldn’t be reached from PLDT and/or Smart, and that they either had to use a backup ISP or a VPN to be able to load the URL and proceed to the signature campaign site.
In December 6, 2021, users complained that PLDT was blocking the privacy-oriented search engine DuckDuckGo.com. Access to the site was restored later that day.
In May 2021, PLDT was found to be blocking one of the largest image-hosting sites on the Internet, Imgur.com.
That PLDT keeps arbitrarily blocking valid non-malicious websites has led to frustration for its subscribers. It’s a practice that needs to stop for the integrity of Philippine Internet.
The author is a Web developer and board member of Democracy.Net.PH, an ICT rights, governance, development, policy, and security advocacy group
