Philippines Legislator Offers Up Bill That Would Criminalize 'Ghosting'

An anonymous reader shares a report: Real problems are what legislators are supposed to be solving. The Philippines has plenty of those, ranging from (government-endorsed) extrajudicial killings of drug dealers and drug users to abuses of state power to silence journalists to the actual murders of human rights activists. But legislators with their own axes to grind will always find ways to hone this edge, even if it means subjecting themselves to international ridicule. Enter Representative Arnolfo "Arnie" Teves, Jr. The rep has introduced a bill that would criminalize the act of "ghosting." For those unfamiliar with internet slang, it may appear Teves is trying to criminalize the act of being a ghost. (Webster's Ye Olde English Dictionary, perhaps.) But ghosts actually engage in "haunting," which is not the same thing as "ghosting." Ghosting is something else. Ghosting is disengaging from a relationship (short-term or long-term) by ignoring all calls, IMs, text messages, emails, etc. from a paramour until the problem ultimately solves itself. If one interested person can't get a response from a disinterested person, sooner or later the interested person stops trying.

Force job ATS systems to give updates and not

[Joe_Dragon]

Force job ATS systems to give updates and not just Ghosting people with no updates at all.

Dear Representative Teves,

[guygo]

""

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

Someone should point out that every time he doesn't engage with whichever nutcase constituent wants him to fix the dispute he's having with the neighbour whose cat poops in his garden, he's breaking his own law. That's the thing with these knee-jerk single-issue laws, as soon as you think about the million other situations they apply to beside the pet problem you're upset about, you want to jump in a hole and pull it in after you.

Re:

[Aristos Mazer]

That's not true. Ghosting requires that you engage with the person in the first place and then stop engaging without notice. If Teves doesn't engage nutcases in the first place, it isn't ghosting.

Editor be damned

[Bite The Pillow]

"For those unfamiliar with internet slang, it may appear Teves is trying to criminalize the act of being a ghost. (Webster's Ye Olde English Dictionary, perhaps.) But ghosts actually engage in "haunting," which is not the same thing as "ghosting." Ghosting is something else."

For fuck's sake this is a summary, not your high school homework. Rip out the useless shit at least.

Re:

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

If they edited out the useless shit, the post would be blank.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

If they edited out the useless shit, the post would be blank.

Indeed. This is not a law nor ever going to be a law.

This is ONE legislator trying to get some attention by proposing something stupid that will fit in a headline.

Re:

[burni2]

Take out the shit of your head!

This is a nerd site and nerds do lots of useless stuff as do intellectuals also do.

But what is useless in the short term is sensible on the long run, as we geeks/nerds all should know, that our acquired and trained skills are mostly the basis of our daily income.

Philippines Legislator comes up with clever way

[rsilvergun]

to get into news cycle. - FTFY.

Do Stalking next

[devslash0]

Stalking is when two people are in a relationship but only one knows about it.

Re:

[dvice]

What if two people are stalking each other, without knowing it?

Re:

[Opportunist]

Usually they make a sitcom out of that, because otherwise it won't work.

So Senator Teves is...

[rnturn]

... really that upset that his mistress broke things off and doesn't want to take his calls any more? Yeesh!

Re:

[myrdos2]

From TFS: Ghosting is disengaging from a relationship (short-term or long-term) by ignoring all calls, IMs, text messages, emails, etc. from a paramour until the problem ultimately solves itself.

I too was a skeptic, but a friend of mine says he saw someone get ghosted with his own eyes. It was late at night, in an abandoned Starbucks. The moonlight white as bone, his friend's face illuminated by the haunting glow of the cellphone. Text after text to his girlfriend, with no response. "Maybe she went to bed"

Re:

[sg_oneill]

Steve jumped up in a sweat and looked around the darkened room. Clutching at the sheets with his blood drained knuckles he could feel the feer rising through his blood. He looked around, nothing pitch blackness, but then he heard a click then a soft pulse. He flew out his bed and turned on the lights.

Nothing, except a message on his cell phone.. "For fuck sake steve, if I catch you outside my window naked and crying again I WILL call the police. Im sorry I gave you the 'its not you its me' line Steve, but h

EU vs. Philippines

[Opportunist]

EU: Right to be forgotten.
Philippines: Right to not be ignored.

Philippines must be a haven for influenza now. You must not even ignore the shills anymore.

Populism

[misnohmer]

Politicians always try to do popular but easy things, and stay away from difficult tasks. Things like "Tougher sentences for sex offenders!" - easy to do, signature here and there, done. "Reduce crime rate", well that's too difficult, better stay away from that. "Replace the word man from all legislature to make it gender neutral" - easy (relatively, a little trouble finding a gender neutral replacement for "manhole cover"). "Provide upwards mobility for all via affordable education", well, that's tough, be

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

"Reduce crime rate", well that's too difficult

Reducing the crime rate is trivially easy for a legislature, you just repeal a bunch of crimes. If you repeal all crimes then the crime rate would be zero. I agree it wouldn't be popular but no way is it difficult.

Where there's a will...

[zarmanto]

I'll just start with a statement of the obvious: This legislation is stupid.

The people who are "ghosting" others aren't going to suddenly start being more receptive to communications from their exes or whoever it is they don't want to talk to -- nor should they. The ones with the wherewithal are just going to change their methods; they'll find some "non-ghosting" means of telling the ex to bugger off, kind'a something like the Rejection Hotline [bustle.com] but for incoming calls and texts.

But here's the rub: "Arnie" m

Betcha it was a woman.

[Tyr07]

They want it illegal to be ignored.