Meta’s Philippine Outrage: Stolen Pages, Soft-Porn, and Silence

How Facebook Lets Criminals Thrive While Victims Beg

1️⃣ The MassKara Festival Page: A Cautionary Tale

The official Facebook page of Bacolod’s MassKara Festival—once the city’s digital celebration of smiles—has been compromised for over two years. Now it pumps out posts of lactating moms, a series called “Hot Flight: The Flight Attendant,” endless bikini shots, and other borderline content. Despite multiple attempts to contact Meta, the effort was futile—nothing changed, and hope faded.

2️⃣ When a Local Bakery Page Became an XXX Billboard

In mid-2022, a wave of Facebook hacks swept through small businesses. A family-run bakery in Quezon City—built over years of community engagement—woke up to find their page repurposed for “fitness” ads zooming crotch shots, lingerie model spotlights, casino promos, and yoga-pant tutorials. They reported the takeover immediately, only to hit a wall of automated “prove it” replies and disappearing support tickets. No human heard their plea. No way to reclaim their digital livelihood.

🤖 YOUR STOLEN PAGE IS GONE FOREVER. META DOESN’T CARE.

• Robotic Runaround: Auto-responders demand “additional proof” you can’t access once locked out.
• Black Hole of Support: Report IDs vanish; emails bounce; no local office picks up the phone.
• Police Report? You need a PNP blotter for a digital asset—absurd, yet true.

“Meta treats hacked Filipinos like scammers, not victims,” warns an IT expert from the DICT Cybersecurity Division.

Result: Criminals sell your page, push soft-porn ads, and Meta rakes in ad revenue.

3️⃣ DEFACING FILIPINO FEEDS: HOW “ALMOST-PORN” FLOODS META

Hackers exploit loopholes by posting borderline content that slips past Community Standards:

• “Fitness” pages zooming crotch shots in yoga pants
• “Art models” in body paint, barely covering nipples
• Teen “talent searches” luring minors to audition in DMs
• “Sabong Live!” streams disguised as poultry wellness
• Casino links under “Lucky Spin Games” targeting OFWs
• “Cash giveaways” funneling users to illegal betting sites

Meta’s stock reply?

“This does not violate our Community Standards.”

🤬 META ISN’T JUST DUMB—IT’S WILLFULLY BROKEN

1. Profit-Driven Blindness: Borderline content boosts engagement and ad revenue.
2. Philippines? Low Priority: No local fines, no local urgency.
3. Designed Neglect: Systems are built to ignore non-Western markets.

Meanwhile:

• Predators monetize stolen pages.
• Kids scroll through sexualized feeds daily.
• Scammers drain bank accounts via fake casino reels.

📉 PH LAWS: ALL BARK, NO BITE

Existing statutes are toothless against Meta’s scale:

• RA 10175 (Cybercrime Law) penalizes hacking but lacks takedown mandates.
• RA 11930 (Anti-Child Sexual Abuse Law) covers minors, yet Meta’s AI conflates it with “artistic nudes.”
• NPC Circulars protect data privacy, but appeal queues stretch for months.

Gaps:
❌ No 24-hour takedown requirement
❌ No penalties for ignoring Filipino users
❌ No transparency on why harmful pages stay up

🔨 HOW WE FIGHT BACK: 3 ACTION STEPS

Meta won’t change until the Philippines inflicts real pain.

1. REPORT → SCREENSHOT → GO PUBLIC
   • File every report and save receipts
   • Expose hijacked pages on X/TikTok—tag @Meta, @DICTph, @govph
   • Rally local media coverage
2. PRESSURE CONGRESS: PASS THE “META ACCOUNTABILITY ACT”
   • Mandate 24-hour takedowns for reported content
   • Fine Meta ₱1 M/day for non-compliance
   • Require a staffed Manila office with a local helpline
3. HIT THEIR WALLET
   • Install ad blockers (e.g., Facebook Ad Blocker)
   • Migrate communities to alternatives: TikTok, Viber, Telegram
   • Support homegrown platforms: Kumu, Pickle, KonekTayoPH

🐾 Final Reflection

We’re not just users—we’re data points. Our stolen pages feed Meta’s profits. Our children’s safety is shrugged off as an “algorithmic error.”

Silence isn’t neutrality—Meta’s inaction is complicity, and our apathy makes us complicit too. We’ve seen crime first, then a new law, only to watch it gather dust while the next decree is drafted.

Ironically, my PhD in AI taught me a bitter truth: sometimes doing nothing pays more than doing something for the country. But if we choose inaction, we’ve already lost.

It’s up to us to demand enforcement, not just empty legislation. It’s time to reclaim our digital space—and make Meta, and our leaders, finally answer for every stolen page and broken promise.

This is the reality in the Philippines: crime first, then a new law. When a law is passed, zero implementation, so we pass another law and repeat the chorus. Worst of all, doing nothing!

📚 Sources

1. GMA News – Over 750K Filipino Facebook Users ‘Compromised’ in September Data Breach https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/companies/671678/over-750k-filipino-facebook-users-compromised-in-september-data-breach/story/
2. Personal interview with an IT expert, DICT Cybersecurity Division, June 2025
3. National Privacy Commission – 2024 Transparency Report https://privacy.gov.ph/transparency-report-2024/
4. Philippine News Agency – House leader flags politically driven fake news ahead of polls (April 8, 2025) https://pna.gov.ph/articles/1247687
5. Republic Act No. 10175 – Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2012/ra_10175_2012.html
6. Government of India, Ministry of Electronics and IT – Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 https://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2021/225464.pdf
7. European Union – Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act) https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj/eng