Republic Act 10175, also known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, took a total of 11 years to be passed. It’s supposed to be the government’s solution to hacking, spamming, pornography, and other Internet crimes that should rightfully be punished.

The law can be considered to be very timely, especially considering the increase in instances of trolling, bashing, cyberbullying, and hacking on websites and social media platforms both here and abroad. This law could just make more responsible netizens out of us.

However, a lot of people have questioned the law’s constitutionality, as it contains several problematic clauses that impinge on the Filipinos’ rights, leading some people to dub it the “e-Martial Law.”

So, what’s the fuss all about? Read on to get the 101 on this controversial law.

(Photo by Brian Klug via Flickr Creative Commons)