Discord, a text, voice, and video chat platform, is open to appointing a Philippine law firm as its local representative as officials want a direct channel for handling urgent online safety concerns. The arrangement would depend on whether it meets the requirements of proposed rules for online platforms.
Discussions with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) focused on whether a legal representative could meet those needs without Discord opening a physical office. Officials want the representative to have authority to act on serious concerns, rather than simply receive government requests.
“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,” said Vasundhara Singh, senior public policy advisor for Asia-Pacific at Discord.
Singh met with officials led by CICC Executive Director Undersecretary Renato “Aboy” Paraiso on Thursday at the agency’s headquarters in Quezon City. The visit followed Discord’s commitment to work with Philippine authorities on online child safety, including threats involving online sexual abuse or exploitation of children (OSAEC) and violent extremism.
The Philippines briefly blocked Discord in September following government demands for a local presence and stronger responses to online safety threats. Authorities lifted the ban on Sept. 24 after talks with the company. Internet service providers had begun restricting access the previous day.
During the latest meeting, Paraiso said having a local contact would be useful only if that person could make decisions on urgent matters.
“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,” Paraiso said.
Singh said the requirements should reflect what the government wants to achieve, particularly in getting platforms to respond to authorities and address urgent concerns. She also cautioned that requiring physical offices could place a heavier burden on smaller technology companies and startups.
Both sides agreed that the final form of Discord’s local representation would depend on the wording of the proposed legislation and the duties it would impose on covered platforms.
Image from CICC Facebook page.