Lawsuit against tech companies attacking media websites in the Philippines

Several Philippine media groups settled a case with tech companies accused of providing infrastructure for cyber-attacks. 

In December 2018, independent news websites Bulatlat, Altermidya, Kodao, and Pinoy Weekly reported that they were targeted with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks . The media linked the shutting down of their websites, as a result of the attacks, with the decline of the freedom of the press under the government of Rodrigo Duterte who became president in 2016. The lawsuit was filed in March 2019 by the beleaguered news websites against the tech companies IP Converge (IPC) and the Suniway Group of Companies Incorporated. IPC is a Philippines-based Internet data center, telecommunications and cloud services company, while Suniway, , registered both in Hong Kong and the Philippines, provides ‘network support to Chinese and Filipino companies in the Philippines’

The Qurium Media Foundation, a non-profit digital solutions provider based in Sweden, helped in stopping the DDoS attacks and identifying tech companies IPC  and Suniway as the source of the cyber-attacks. The tech companies have now signed an agreement that includes a pledge to protect freedom of the press.