As online threats against media outlets and journalists rise, many are retaliating

Worrying sign: A file photo showing people from Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) take part in a protest against the Philippine government-ordered shutdown of broadcaster ABS-CBN outside the College of Mass Communication at the University of the Philippines in Manila. Governments are often behind such online threats in nations including Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines, says DigitalReach, a global phenomenon dubbed digital authoritarianism. — AFP

When hackers targeted independent Filipino news outlet Bulatlat.com, flooding its website with a torrent of rogue traffic, staff had to rely on digital forensics experts in Sweden to track down the perpetrators.

“Building the case means you must come up with evidence. But digital forensics is something we simply don’t have any resources for,” said Frank Lloyd Tiongson of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, which represented Bulatlat over the 2018 attack.