Local telcos PLDT and Globe Telecom are blocking hundreds of websites carrying footage of school shootings and other acts of extreme violence, prompting concerns from a cyber activist over the absence of clear standards and due process.
PLDT and its wireless unit Smart Communications said they would block more than 100 websites found to be streaming or hosting footage of school shootings and similar violent incidents.
The restrictions will be imposed at the network level, making the websites inaccessible to PLDT and Smart subscribers. The company said it would continue adding sites identified through its monitoring and coordination with government agencies, child protection groups, and parenting communities.
“This is something we do not tolerate,” PLDT chief operating officer Butch Jimenez said. “We have decided to ban these kinds of sites preemptively, as soon as they are discovered. Our networks will not be used as a channel for content that glorifies violence and puts our communities, especially our children, at risk.”
“There is no debate to be had here,” Jimenez added. “Content that turns real-world violence into entertainment has no place on our networks and in our society, and we will keep acting decisively every time we find it.”
Globe said it was likewise blocking hundreds of additional sites that stream or host gore-related material or content depicting extreme violence, including sites covered by orders from Philippine government agencies.
“We have a responsibility to help make the online environment safer, especially for children and young people. As new risks emerge, we need to keep looking at what more we can do,” Globe general counsel Froilan Castelo said.
“The recent school shooting incident is one opportunity where the industry can work together by removing sites that induce violence in our networks. At Globe, we are ready to do our part and protect children online,” he added.
Globe said it blocked 438,446 domains and URLs containing child sexual abuse and exploitation materials in 2025. The company reported investing more than $2.7 million in content-filtering and blocking systems and said its safeguards also cover non-photographic imagery and AI-generated child sexual abuse materials.
Cyber activist Tonyo Cruz, however, questioned the telcos’ authority to decide unilaterally which websites should be inaccessible to their subscribers.
“The unilateral blocking of sites or accounts preempts and violates due process, which safeguards our rights against overreach and abuse by government and big corporations such as PLDT-Smart,” Cruz said.
“The tech giant’s short-circuiting of due process is an act of violence on the role of courts and the rule of law. It is no different from kids stealing their fathers’ guns to shoot at perceived foes,” he added.
Cruz warned that the absence of transparent criteria and independent oversight could allow network-level blocking to be extended to other types of content.
“What’s next for PLDT-Smart’s blocking spree? Gambling sites? Pages of unions and employees, including restive PLDT workers? Corporate competitors? Customers complaining about slow internet?” he said.
He also disputed the suggestion that access to violent online content was a primary cause of the recent school shootings, arguing that scrutiny should instead focus on how the shooters obtained firearms.
“Tech and videos did not arm the kid shooters. Their parents did, parents who are law enforcers,” Cruz said.
“The cry for justice, the prosecution of the shooters and those who made it possible for them to make the attacks take a back seat to PLDT-Smart’s apparent aspiration to be the sheriff of Philippine cyberspace,” he added.
