With the advancement of technological inventions globally, human

interaction is one of the things that revolutionized with it. Internet has been one
of the breakthrough inventions that made the world figuratively smaller through
transforming human interactions and communication. The vast evolution of this
technology opened a lot of doors for people to pass through information on
different issues around them especially the government. Internet has become a
huge platform for people to exercise their freedom of speech.
With freedom of speech, information can freely flow, opinions can easily be
voiced out, and criticisms can easily be thrown to technically anyone around the
world. This paved the way for democracy to be exercised in a lot of countries.
Quoting the introduction to The Free Speech Century, a text edited by two of the
leading First Amendment scholars in the US, “While vastly expanding the
opportunities to participate in public discourse, contemporary means of
communication have also arguably contributed to political polarization, foreign
influence in our democracy, and the proliferation of ‘fake’ news.” In the
Philippines, with the recently concluded elections, freedom of speech has been
exercised by a lot of Filipinos through voicing their opinions out in the social
media. This also paved the way for fake news to play a very huge role during the
elections which eventually became one of the issues that our country currently
faces. According to an article released by VOA News, “The Philippines is seen as a
testing ground for disinformation campaigns and is often referred to as “Patient
Zero” by analysts tracking the spread of false news”. This is a testament on the
extent of how crucial freedom of speech is.
Freedom of speech is a privilege that we have right now and we must learn
to use it in a responsible manner. “A person can exercise freedom of speech but
must also be “man enough” to face the rule of law if the rights of others are
trampled”, according to Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar.
Freedom of speech does not mean you’re free to say anything you want, but be
accountable for the things you say as some acts could be punishable by law.