The Department of Information and Communications Technology’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) on Thursday announced it is endorsing to the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) a list of social media influencers for possible case build-up, saying it found these influencers to be promoting illegal online gambling.
At a press conference in Quezon City, CICC chief Undersecretary Renato “Aboy” Paraiso announced that the agency’s Threat Monitoring Team (TMC), in coordination with advocacy group Digital Pinoys, “has identified 30 more influencers that are still promoting illegal online gambling.”
Paraiso said the top 15 influencers who were still observed posting contents containing promotions of illegal online gambling websites had follower counts ranging from 1.1 million to 9.2 million.
“We would now be asking for the takedown of their sites and we will be endorsing them to the PNP-ACG for the appropriate filing of cases,” he said.
The CICC chief said the influencers were given a chance to take down content promoting illegal online gambling, but did not comply, thus legal actions will now be pursued against them.
Paraiso said the endorsement to the PNP-ACG would begin the process of case build-up against the influencers.
He said that possible charges that could be faced by the influencers include violations under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, Presidential Decree No. 1602 (Prescribing Stiffer Penalties on Illegal Gambling), and Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code on estafa.
Paraiso said further investigation might point to a possible “grand conspiracy” or large-scale syndicated estafa involving influencers promoting illegal online gambling.
To recall, in July, the CICC ordered social media influencers to take down content promoting illegal online gambling or face legal action.
Digital Pinoys national campaigner Ronald Gustilo said the group “will be turning over a new software that will make monitoring cyberspace easier.”
“This can easily detect illegal gambling sites,” he said. — BM, GMA Integrated News
