DILG Urges Facebook to Remove E-Sabong Pages and Accounts

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The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has urged Facebook to remove illegal e-sabong pages and accounts on its platform.

DILG thanked the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for answering President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to stop e-sabong operations in the country by immediately ordering banks and all supervised institutions to remove all e-sabong operators from their respective apps.

[Update] E-Sabong Crypto? 12 ‘E-Sabong’ Sites Using Crypto as Bets, PNP Discovers

However, DILG said it must not stop from the banks, but social media site Facebook should also ban pages and accounts associated with e-sabong operations.

“Inaasahan namin na makikiisa rin ang Facebook sa pagpapatigil ng e-sabong sa pamamagitan ng pag-block sa mga e-sabong accounts o pages.” 

DILG Secretary Eduardo Año.

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said he wrote to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to block the e-sabong pages and also automatically ban all associated Facebook pages and groups that encourage people to do illegal e-sabong.

“We hope that Facebook will immediately suspend or block pages devoted to illegal sabong as fast as they suspend pages that allegedly violate their community standards. I presume that engaging in illegal activities is a violation of FB’s standards.” 

DILG Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya

E-Sabong and Crypto Connection in the Philippines

The Philippine National Police (PNP) identified 12 “e-sabong” websites that are using cryptocurrencies.

[Update] E-Sabong Crypto? 12 ‘E-Sabong’ Sites Using Crypto as Bets, PNP Discovers

“There is no specific registration happening, just like Bitcoin, those are operated by numbers. And once a bettor decides to stop gambling, they can cash out anytime through exchanges – they are using third party exchanges,” said PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) Head, Lieutenant Michelle Sabino.

This article is published on BitPinas: DILG Urges Facebook to Remove E-Sabong Pages and Accounts

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