ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship INTERSECTIONAL GENDER ANALYSIS: ONLINE GENDER BASED VIOLENCE IN THE PHILIPPINES The Philippines maintains its position as the Despite the widespread use of social media, leading social media user in the Asia Pacific concerns persist regarding the effective region for the year 2023, with an average daily implementation and enforcement of existing usage of 3 hours and 38 minutes per individual. 90 laws and regulations. The extensive online While this extensive digital engagement might presence and the dynamic nature of digital suggest a thriving online environment, it’s interactions underscore the need for continuous essential to recognise that the sheer volume scrutiny and refinement of legal frameworks of activity does not necessarily translate to to ensure the protection and rights of internet stringent adherence to laws and regulations users in the Philippines. by authorities. Circumstances or cases wherein women in The Philippines Percentage of Internet and Social Media Users Internet Users the Philippines, and those with intersecting identities, find themselves subjected to distinct forms of harassment. The venom of misogynistic comments and gender-based Social Media Users violence disproportionately targets them. 100% Gender-based violence (GBV) facilitated by 90% technology (called Technologically-Facilitated 80% Gender Based Violence, TF GBV), includes acts 70% committed, aided, intensified, or amplified through 60% information communication technologies or other 50% digital tools. This extends further as LGBTIQA+ 40% 73% 30% 72% individuals and ethnic minorities encounter 20% compounded forms of online victimisation.91 TF 10% GBV are frequently disregarded because they 0% Prevalence Total Population 85,16 million 84,45 million 116,5 million DataReportal, Digital 2023, Philippines, (9 february 2023), available at : https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-philippines Fig. 6.3B: Percentage of Internet and Social Media Users in the Philippines, 2023. do not involve direct physical harm. However, they result in a variety of harms and violations of rights and freedoms, encompassing physical, sexual, psychological, economic, social, and political consequences.92 In 2023, a 55-year-old widow from Nueva Ecija, faced extortion, with a man threatening to disseminate her intimate images unless she paid 3,000 pesos.93 The perpetrator, now apprehended, 232 Dawn of Digital Dictatorship: Weaponizing the Law Against Online Speech in Southeast Asia