bitcointalk banned in the Philippines

[Rikafip]

that kind of ban usually doesnt last forever. people will just use vpn and keep accessing anyway. blocking a forum doesnt really stop bitcoin discussion it just pushes it somewhere else.

As far as I know, bitcointalk is still banned in Russia and its going on for years now, I think that people from Phllipines should be prepared for this ban to last for quite some time.

Russians use VPN to acces bitcointalk, so I guess that's what users from Phillipines will have to use from now on.

[Hazink]

They should be ready to ban and restrict the entire use of social media, Google and other means of accessing information on the internet because there are a bunch of gambling ads everywhere which the people of Philippians will gain access to and still complain about that if there was such in the first place.

"Many users reported." Who are the users? Government can be useless you know.

Probably those unsatisfied customers few of them might have reported, and they saw it as an avenue to ban something which has no problem with their people's gambling addiction. 

[Itz-prisigold]

Seriously, I feel as though this is a total misunderstanding of what the forum is. Base on what I am seeing on the warning page, they are actually grouping Bitcointalk with unlicensed online casinos, which doesn't make any sense. Bitcointalk is a community for where people have discussion, learning and share personal experiences. And not a gambling site or even handing money to users directly.

Do you honestly believe that by closing Bitcointalk down, you will be protecting your users from scams? Anyone who wants to learn about something, or verify claims for themselves will no longer have access to the forum where scammers are often exposed and openly talked about, the fact that there is so much transparency regarding scammers, helps keep people safer here in the forum.

Honestly, I feel that they have placed their focus on the wrong area, instead of completely shutting down the entire forum, I believe they should be focusing on taking out the particular scam sites, and doing a better job educating users on how to stay safe. I just think this their act only deprived people from getting valuable information.

[Lucius]

So the Philippines is joining the superpowers of democracy and prosperity China and Russia by blocking a forum where cryptocurrencies are discussed? Of course, you always need a good excuse for doing stupid things, and it's easiest to blame gambling now that there's no mixers anymore.

On the other hand, there is something good in that, because now maybe more users of this forum from the Philippines will start using Tor and VPN, although I recommend Tor if you care about privacy.

[Ziskinberg]

So the Philippines is joining the superpowers of democracy and prosperity China and Russia by blocking a forum where cryptocurrencies are discussed? Of course, you always need a good excuse for doing stupid things, and it's easiest to blame gambling now that there's no mixers anymore.

They are not. It’s probably just a mistake, maybe the operator pressed the ban button by accident. 

From what I checked, the SEC announcement was only about banning unlicensed exchanges and gambling sites. Bitcointalk is not one of those, it’s just a forum.
Hopefully they remove the ban soon if this was really just a mistake.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Definitely not the first country. I recall old discussion that claim China and Russia government block this forum first.

Russians use VPN to acces bitcointalk, so I guess that's what users from Phillipines will have to use from now on.

The irony is that nowadays, it is also becoming difficult for Russians to purchase VPN, as the country has begun to struggle with everything that can hide traffic, namely VPN. In general, the latest news noises portend strict laws for the use of VPN, therefore, the fact that only the forum was blocked for the Philippines may seem like a small thing to others.

ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ ) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://ura.news/articles/1053089909

https://ura.news/articles/1053089909#anchor-1777568611472-1843

[BitMaxz]

I use a residential internet plan, but the forum is accessible even if I don't use a VPN or change my DNS. It appears that a few local internet providers, such as Globe and Smart, are restricting any crypto-related forums and exchanges.
We're talking about it in a Facebook group and another forum about how the SEC and NTC wanted to restrict everything related to cryptocurrency earlier this year because they promote local exchanges like PDAX and Coins.ph.

I believe they restricted the forum because they had negative impressions of the two local exchanges from the forum.

Most of us are concerned that if any crypto-related websites become completely inaccessible in the future, where will we be able to buy and sell cryptocurrency?

I am aware of some no KYC P2P exchanges, but the majority of these do not accept our fiat.

that kind of ban usually doesnt last forever. people will just use vpn and keep accessing anyway. blocking a forum doesnt really stop bitcoin discussion it just pushes it somewhere else.

No need for a VPN; changing DNS works fine.

[Lucius]

They are not. It’s probably just a mistake, maybe the operator pressed the ban button by accident. 
From what I checked, the SEC announcement was only about banning unlicensed exchanges and gambling sites. Bitcointalk is not one of those, it’s just a forum.
Hopefully they remove the ban soon if this was really just a mistake.

You may not have noticed, but most sig campaigns on the forum advertise gambling - and gambling boards are one of the most active on the forum. The case of freebitco also comes to mind, apparently a lot of people have lost money there since it became clear that the site had turned into a scam. This forum was one of the biggest advertising platforms for them.

The irony is that nowadays, it is also becoming difficult for Russians to purchase VPN, as the country has begun to struggle with everything that can hide traffic, namely VPN. In general, the latest news noises portend strict laws for the use of VPN, therefore, the fact that only the forum was blocked for the Philippines may seem like a small thing to others.
~snip~

As far as I know there are VPNs that can be paid for with cryptocurrencies, so I don't see why any restrictions on that would be a problem. Besides, it's fascinating why people are so hesitant to use a free browser like Tor, which is a far better choice than most VPNs that store user logs and can hand them over to the authorities at any time if they ask.

[hd49728]

As far as I know there are VPNs that can be paid for with cryptocurrencies, so I don't see why any restrictions on that would be a problem. Besides, it's fascinating why people are so hesitant to use a free browser like Tor, which is a far better choice than most VPNs that store user logs and can hand them over to the authorities at any time if they ask.

VPNs can be paid by bitcoin, Monero or cash, so I agree that this restriction on VPN only has effects on people who don't use cryptocurrencies.

Some VPNs that accept Bitcoin, Monero, Cash to bypass the government restrictions but perhaps cash is not too helpful as if governments ban VPNs in their nations, merchants there will have legal issues if they sell VPN to locals through cash.

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/#recommended-providers
https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-vpn
https://kycnot.me/?categories=vpn&currency-mode=or&currencies=xmr&currencies=btc
https://bitlist.co/vpns?currency=BTC&currency=XMR

[alani123]

Philippines is one of the countries with notoriously low income. Many people survive their family off 2 USD a day. It is equivalent to Africa but doesn't get much publicity. Also big cities in the Philippines are some of the most expensive places in the whole planet when compared to the median income. So it's fair to say Philippines is one of the most unfair undemocratic countries in the world. In many ways much worse than north Korea even.

Wouldn't expect much from such cleptocratic regime. A few thousand people were using this forum to earn a living more recently than working back breaking jobs and I guess their government didn't like that. The regime in the Philip would rather see their own people suffer at the hands of foreign megacorps so they can enrich themselves rather than being able to love off a decent income coming from abroad. Sad but I just hope people there wake up and do something about it. There's no other way this could be fixed
 
 

[lovesmayfamilis]

As far as I know there are VPNs that can be paid for with cryptocurrencies, so I don't see why any restrictions on that would be a problem. Besides, it's fascinating why people are so hesitant to use a free browser like Tor, which is a far better choice than most VPNs that store user logs and can hand them over to the authorities at any time if they ask.

While I wasn't affected by all of these blocks, recent news about the free Tor browser suggests that it isn't always completely reliable either, as described in this article.

https://fingerprint.com/blog/firefox-tor-indexeddb-privacy-vulnerability/

We recently discovered a privacy vulnerability affecting all Firefox-based browsers. The issue allows websites to derive a unique, deterministic, and stable process-lifetime identifier from the order of entries returned by IndexedDB, even in contexts where users expect stronger isolation

[Rikafip]

The irony is that nowadays, it is also becoming difficult for Russians to purchase VPN, as the country has begun to struggle with everything that can hide traffic, namely VPN. In general, the latest news noises portend strict laws for the use of VPN, therefore, the fact that only the forum was blocked for the Philippines may seem like a small thing to others.

I think that situation is somewhat similar in China - VPNs are basically forbidden, but everyone keeps using them (both Chinese people and foreigners) and the same thing will happen in Russia if they keep restricting them.

Philippines is one of the countries with notoriously low income. Many people survive their family off 2 USD a day. It is equivalent to Africa but doesn't get much publicity.

I knew that situation there is not good, but do people really have such a low income there? $2 per day is like level of Central African Republic and other similar sub sahara countries. I find it hard to believe that situation is that bad in Phillipines as well. 

[PrivacyG]

While I wasn't affected by all of these blocks, recent news about the free Tor browser suggests that it isn't always completely reliable either, as described in this article.

But it is safe to assume ALL Privacy options have vulnerabilities and finding them is all about time.  It was never supposed to be vulnerability proofed and if the threat level is higher than being an average citizen who wants their Government and corporations to stop spying on them, Tor Browser is definitely not enough.

[bitmover]

The irony is that nowadays, it is also becoming difficult for Russians to purchase VPN, as the country has begun to struggle with everything that can hide traffic, namely VPN. In general, the latest news noises portend strict laws for the use of VPN, therefore, the fact that only the forum was blocked for the Philippines may seem like a small thing to others.

I think that situation is somewhat similar in China - VPNs are basically forbidden, but everyone keeps using them (both Chinese people and foreigners) and the same thing will happen in Russia if they keep restricting them.

Although people can still use VPN if they are forbidden,  less people are willing to use a forbidden VPN to access a banned website.

That indeed reduces the access to those banned websites and applications. Unfortunately

[tbct_mt2]

But it is safe to assume ALL Privacy options have vulnerabilities and finding them is all about time.  It was never supposed to be vulnerability proofed and if the threat level is higher than being an average citizen who wants their Government and corporations to stop spying on them, Tor Browser is definitely not enough.

Only Tor browser is not enough and there are more steps to do.

Erase yourself from the Internet.
How to disappear and become untraceable
Extreme privacy: What takes to disappear.

Five steps recommended by Jameson Lopp.
1. Ad-block
2. Pi-hole
3. 100 lives
4. Burn trail
5. Erased

[Rikafip]

Although people can still use VPN if they are forbidden,  less people are willing to use a forbidden VPN to access a banned website.

That indeed reduces the access to those banned websites and applications. Unfortunately

I think that effects would be more visible if they banned some more mainstream website (something like Instagram or Facebook) that all kinds of people visit. But I don't expect that an average bitcointalk member from Phllipines would rather stop visiting bitcointalk than to use VPN.

Speaking of VPNs, out of curiosity I just connected to Phillipines server set in Manilla and managed to access bitcointalk with no issues whatsoever.

[Lucius]

While I wasn't affected by all of these blocks, recent news about the free Tor browser suggests that it isn't always completely reliable either, as described in this article.

https://fingerprint.com/blog/firefox-tor-indexeddb-privacy-vulnerability/
~snip~

Nothing is perfect, but as far as I can see Firefox has already released a fix for that problem, and as far as I can see in the latest update log for Tor, they have included all the security fixes in their latest update. What I wanted to say is that there is a free solution to access this forum in case a country bans it.

[noorman0]

The fact is undeniable: the gambling section generates the highest traffic and activity among all sections. I suspect this affects the algorithms of some search engines, inadvertently placing this forum in the list of gambling-related sites.

By the way, I just realized that this forum requires users to pay and then "scams" them. Could it be that the reporter bought a copper membership and then got banned?

[PX-Z]

That's weird and the description they gave doesn't relate in any way to the forum. Gambling is the closest thing I can think of which will make them do that, but it isn't exactly illegal there, many gambling sites are still accessible from the country.

That warning is common for blocked site in ph isp, what is ironic is they will show list of licensed casinos below with that screenshot. They are like "This site is unlicensed casino, here are the licensed ones so go here and lost your money legally" lmao. Most casino in ph are not provably fair so yeah.

As for the reason, i guess, with all the promoted signatures, gambling topic, the site was flagged and listed by incompetent incharge, who can't identify a casino and a forum.

I cannot see any post on this on the Phillipines board and users there seem to be posting just fine. Could this be peculiar to you or is already general? Can you show a screenshot that shows bitcointalk.org is the website you were getting into when you got that message?

Looks like it's just new today, or is it just ph local users use dns just like i did who can still access the forum with no problem, or most of us uses VPN as well.

[Agbamoni]

Are you for real??? A forum that is as harmless as Bitcointalk banned by your government? That's pathetic if this is true. I even thought backward a little when I first saw this to be sure I wasn't dreaming of another April fool prank.

Thank goodness, VPN is there for you guys.

Bitcointalk is not the only unharmful site that was banned. The target is against a site that has a correlation with gambling activities. As we all know, the forum is housing many gambling platforms, and to the Philippine government, anything gambling wants to be restricted from access to their religion. It is obvious they dont care about the other benefit of the site to the peoples.