Is Discord banned in the Philippines? No, the ban was lifted

What happened, day by day

1. September 18

   A 16-year-old Grade 9 student shot and killed two classmates and then himself at Banga National High School in South Cotabato. It was the third school shooting in four months that authorities linked to online radicalization.⁹¹⁴

2. September 21

   The CICC sent letters to Discord and Reddit giving each 24 hours to open a Philippine office or designate a resident agent, and to explain their child-safety and age-verification measures.⁹

3. September 22

   The directive became public. The CICC warned that platforms that did not comply could face restricted operations or blocked access in the Philippines.⁹¹⁴

4. September 23

   Reddit met the CICC online and committed to a Philippine office and faster reporting channels. Discord sent a letter offering to brief the agency on its teen-safety tools. The CICC first said both platforms had been given more time, then clarified that only Reddit had.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁰

5. September 23, about 5 p.m.

   Telecom companies and internet service providers began blocking Discord's address under the NTC directive, DICT Secretary Henry Aguda later said.¹⁷

6. September 23, about 8 p.m.

   Globe users began seeing a page saying access to Discord was blocked under an NTC directive. Reports of blocks on GOMO, TNT and DITO followed.⁵⁶¹⁸

7. September 24

   CICC Director Wayawaya "Aya" Macalma apologized to affected users and said the geoblock will be lifted once Discord gives a concrete response to the government's concerns.⁷

8. September 24, afternoon

   After meeting Discord officials, the CICC said it was ordering the block lifted and asked the NTC to restore access. DICT Secretary Henry Aguda announced the lifting, saying Discord had promised immediate steps to strengthen child protection.¹³²

9. September 24, about 7 p.m.

   Network tests on Globe connections, which had found Discord blocked at the DNS level through the afternoon, began loading Discord normally. Tests on PLDT and Converge connections did too. No network announced the change.⁴¹³

10. September 25

    Every network test of Discord from a Philippine connection kept loading it normally, with no sign of a block.⁴

Does Discord work again on every Philippine network?

Lifting the ban meant each network had to remove its own block, and in mid-afternoon reports on September 24 Globe and DITO were still blocking Discord. No network announced when it stopped, so we checked the public network measurements of OONI, the Open Observatory of Network Interference.³¹³⁴

Tests on Globe connections found Discord blocked at the DNS level through the afternoon of September 24 and loading normally from about 7 p.m. that evening. Every test of Discord from a Philippine connection since then, on Globe, PLDT, Converge and other networks, has loaded it normally through the afternoon of September 25.⁴

We found no report of any network still blocking Discord after the evening of September 24. If Discord does not open on your connection, your network's customer support can tell you whether its block has been removed.

Why did the CICC block Discord?

The CICC wants platforms that Filipino children use to have someone in the country who answers to Philippine authorities. It cited online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, child sexual abuse material, and what it calls nihilistic violent extremism, and said subpoenas and evidence requests are hard to enforce against companies with no local legal presence.¹⁴⁹

Reddit received the same deadline and was given more time after its officials met the agency within the 24 hours. Discord replied by letter instead, and the CICC said no extension had been granted to Discord "pending direct discussions with the platform and concrete commitments."¹⁰¹⁶

Why was the Discord ban lifted?

Officials of the CICC and the DICT met Discord on September 24. CICC Executive Director Renato Paraiso called the meeting a success and apologized to the public for the block, and DICT Secretary Henry Aguda said Discord had promised immediate steps to strengthen child protection.⁸²

Discord committed to set up a direct coordination channel with authorities, handle investigation requests from the CICC and other agencies faster, and establish a presence in the country, and Discord and Reddit have named point persons to coordinate with the government. Paraiso said the CICC now awaits a Discord satellite office in the Philippines.³¹¹⁸

What has Discord said?

In its letter to the CICC, Discord expressed concern about the recent incidents and offered to brief the agency on its Global Teen Experience, which adds age-assurance measures and teen-appropriate defaults, on its Family Center tools, and on Kodex, its system for handling law enforcement requests.¹⁵¹⁶

At the September 24 meeting, Discord Senior Public Policy Advisor Vasundhara Singh explained that users who cannot be placed in an age group must confirm their age with facial age estimation, and that Discord does not keep the biometric data.¹

Apart from what its policy team told the government, we could not find a public statement from Discord about the block or its lifting as of this update.

Is blocking Discord legal?

That was disputed while the block was in place. Former DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy questioned blocking a platform without a court process, pointing to the Supreme Court's 2014 ruling in Disini v. Secretary of Justice, which struck down the part of the Cybercrime Prevention Act that let the Department of Justice block access to online data without a court warrant.⁶¹⁹

Pierre Tito Galla of the digital rights group Democracy.net.ph also criticized blocking without due process and warned it could be used against other platforms.⁶

Who was affected?

• Gamers and hobby groups who run their communities, voice chats and events on Discord.
• Students and school organizations that use Discord servers for classes and clubs.
• Online workers. Dy estimated about 15,000 legitimate Filipino workers were affected, including freelancer and virtual assistant communities such as Barangay VA Helpdesk, which has more than 12,000 members. The estimate has not been independently verified.⁶
• Community owners outside the Philippines whose Filipino members suddenly could not connect.