As piracy and smuggling incidents seem to rise in some countries, Philippines now opt for WhatsApp to fight piracy, through private closed groups, with fishermen and scientists playing a critical role in reporting.
In December’s BIMCO security Bulletin, BIMCO’s Mette Kronholm Fraende, Communications Manager and Editor, explains that closed social media groups are becoming the tool to fight piracy in South East Asia.
Specifically, it is explained that although the use of applications, such as WhatsApp, began as a private initiative by local fishermen and research institutes as a method to monitor and report potential and suspicious activities in the area, it has now been developed to a bigger scale, with involvement of the maritime police, coast guard and local governments.
Amparo Pamela Fabe, Professor of the Transnational Organized Crime, National Police College in the Philippines, notes that
There is certainly a potential for this to become inter-regional and there is hope that this idea can be raised either in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) security committee or the ASEAN economic development committee.
Moreover, fishermen play a key role in this initiative, as the information shared in WhatsApp comes from a variety of sources, including fishermen, professors and scientists.
Thus, fishermen, scientists and professors, are part of WhatsApp groups, trying to learn more information about piracy in the area, also reporting if they see suspect activities or pirates. In case of a suspicious move, they report back to the local government, law enforcement, maritime police and coastguards.
In addition, a big advantage of using WhatsApp is the safety factor. According to BIMCO’s Head of Maritime Safety and Security, Jakob Paaske Larsen, this application is encrypted, which means that it could only be hacked by specialists.
He added that setting up closed WhatsApp groups is both easy and highly effective, noting though, that
Nothing is 100% secured. However, an initiative like this one does not need top-tier security systems such as the ones used by the intelligence community to be effective.
