bitcointalk banned in the Philippines

[LoyceV]

not everyone can use a VPN

This would be the best use of browser-integrated VPNs The user doesn't need any knowledge to use it.

Many people out there trust what the government tells them like an elder

I don't know about you, but the older I get, the less I trust the government. I've seen far too many lies from politicians over the years.
You know the old joke?

Code:

How can you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips move.

and if they say that a site is bad for them, they will also avoid it without questioning.

That's ironic, given that many "old people" (and also younger ones) fall for phishing sites and get their bank account emptied.

I do hope the government removes this idiotic step after a few years or so.

I know it's been suggested before, but again: Bitcointalk should have a .onion domain.

[Wapfika]

Are you all who are saying it's banned in the Philippines sure that it's really banned there? I changed my VPN to Philippines and I can still browse and write on the forum. In fact, I am writing this post while I am using the Philippines IP.

Isn't it the ISP who can ban a site? In this case, the OP needs to reach out to his ISP.

The ban is through ISP ban but it was instructed by the government as part of the crackdown on unlicensed gambling site. Currently, there’s only limited ISP that follow this ban but I’m sure the majority will follow later on.

ISP will not unban it unless there will be a multiple report that will prove it’s not a gambling site. The main challenge is our government and ISP services is very slow to response on complaints like this which means VPN is the quick fix on this issue.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

That's not how VPN work!
A VNP with a Philippine IP will not be able to see that website because the communication starts from a country with a block!
The main reason for a VPN is to fake your location so as not to be in the country where things are blocked.
I got logged off from Betfair like 100 times because I forgot I was connected to a US server and Betfair blocks US iP!

It's because Betfair block the US.
The forum does not block the Philippines.

If the forum blocks IP from Philippines, I agree with you, but in fact it is not like that.

Like some casinos prohibit nations but don't block IP addresses from those nations.
Which casinos have IP blocks in place for restricted countries?

Of course, I said from my practice, not from technical knowledge about VPN.

[xLays]

So as a Filipino, I wanted to know what are the reasons so I did sent an email 10 hours ago.



It was addressed to DICT as they are the agency here that handle the policies and other things related to digital infrastructure.
I will update if I will get the response from them.

I suggest you should also post the translation of the email you sent since you’re posting this in Meta and not in our local board. But it’s okay if you don’t, it’s just my suggestion and still up to you.

About the email you sent my opinion, given that Bitcointalk is full of gambling related posts and as someone who spends a lot of time here on the forum, I feel like there are actually more posts about gambling compared to bitcoin or cryptocurrency topics here on bitcointalk. And I think that’s one of the reasons why our government may have tried to block bitcointalk. lol Remember our government also block some gambling related ads maybe they consider this similar to what they want to block.

[dkbit98]

Firefox free VPN is not available Asia as far as I know, they roll it out and limited to the US, UK, Germany, and France. But I do agree that we can used VPN to accessed the forum (using free Proton VPN).

Yeah but they will probably expand to more countries in future, but I usually dont recommend free vpn services long term.
I said before that he can always use Tor or Brave browser-with-Tor as the second best options.

Imagine that, you're not allowed to use this VPN to circumvent government censorship, and you're not allowed to promote it for doing so.
Their Terms are the reason I've never used their VPN.

I have been saying people for a while to stay away from proton VPN, they are most likely government honeypot.

[Supreme Donvic]

I heard countries like Russia are using VPN to login to this forum because their country has ban this forum, so the best option for Philippines right now is to start using VPN to join the forum, this is not just because of the scam issues in this forum the government really don't understand the forum very well I can tell you for free that if they understand how the forum works they won't take such action.
But what do you guys expect a lot of countries are actually against Bitcoin and a forum like this they will also not like it but since there's still a way for people in that country to operate using the forum no problem.

[macson]

It's absolutely ridiculous that this forum is being mistaken for a gambling site. It's clear that this is a Bitcoin discussion forum, and most of the discussions here are about Bitcoin. While there are other topics discussed here, such as gambling, that doesn't provide a strong basis for declaring this forum a gambling website.

Even elementary school kids can probably tell the difference between a forum and a gambling website. Are they so idiotic that they can't tell the difference between a Bitcoin discussion forum and a gambling website??

[qwertyup23]

I had to find a thread related to this news because I tried accessing this forum using my phone and iPad via 5g. I was surprised when I saw a message popped-out stating that access to this website was prohibited due to being an unlicensed gambling website which sounds so stupid and ridiculous at the same time.

Question to my fellow Filipinos, how do you gain access and circumvent this error? Whenever I use my local ISP and connect my devices to the WiFi, I can easily access this forum. But whenever I use my phone via local data, I just cannot access it whatsoever.

I heard countries like Russia are using VPN to login to this forum because their country has ban this forum, so the best option for Philippines right now is to start using VPN to join the forum, this is not just because of the scam issues in this forum the government really don't understand the forum very well I can tell you for free that if they understand how the forum works they won't take such action.
But what do you guys expect a lot of countries are actually against Bitcoin and a forum like this they will also not like it but since there's still a way for people in that country to operate using the forum no problem.

Do you have an idea how to access or to circumvent this error? If ever I will use VPN service, do you have any recommendation which one to subscribe and/or download that also works on mobile phones and related devices?

[Lucius]

~snip~
It's absolutely ridiculous that this forum is being mistaken for a gambling site.

Maybe because most active users have an advertisement for online gambling platforms in their signature, including you. We can only hope that gambling does not become a problem in the US and that online casinos do not suffer the same fate as mixers when it comes to this forum.

~snip~
Do you have an idea how to access or to circumvent this error? If ever I will use VPN service, do you have any recommendation which one to subscribe and/or download that also works on mobile phones and related devices?

I can't recommend any of these on the list, but they're worth a look. By the way, you can try the Tor browser, which is free.

List of VPN Service Providers - 2025

[dzungmobile]

Maybe because most active users have an advertisement for online gambling platforms in their signature, including you. We can only hope that gambling does not become a problem in the US and that online casinos do not suffer the same fate as mixers when it comes to this forum.

Generally gambling is allowed in the USA and with many physical casinos there, I believe gambling won't be banned in the USA. Gambling legality in the nation depends on states but generally it is not restricted too severely. In Europe, like in the UK and some nations such as Netherlands, governments tightened their regulations on gambling advertisements. LoyceV said that he no longer is ready to wear signature of gambling casino because of that new regulation in his nation.

And since 2 days ago, the Netherlands no longer allows advertising for gambling sites (including affilates), unless they can prove less than 5% of the players are under 24 years old. I don't like this level of government involvement, but it applies nonetheless. But I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not even sure if this gambling advertising law even applies to casinos that don't target the Dutch market, so if someone can convince me it doesn't apply, that would be great

[satscraper]

If ever I will use VPN service, do you have any recommendation which one to subscribe and/or download that also works on mobile phones and related devices?

The first things to check before selecting any VPN are:

1)If their app supports the kill switch.

2)If they provide optimized servers for users in restricted countries.

3)If they support techniques ^{like VPNXOR} to obfuscate VPN traffic .

4)Whether they run their own DNS servers preventing DNS leaks.

5)Their jurisdiction.

All of them will claim to have the strict no‑logs policy, but I don’t believe that. At best, the honest ones will delete your logs after a few days.

P.S .Most of the points above are taken from VPN app I use.

[Oasisman]

I think this action is a result of the growing number of fake crypto copy trading platforms that SEC has been warning people about.
Those fake platforms kept changing their domain, and the authorities are still tracking and cracking down on these ponzi schemes.
Riscoin - Seagull Alliance and BG Wealth, these 2 are in the process of rugpull.
I can't believe the number of people who feel for it and believe it was real, lol.

Also, I think this rule right here should be one of the reasons why :

The "VASP" Rule: The BSP (Central Bank of the PH) now strictly enforces rules for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). Any platform that allows you to exchange, transfer, or store crypto must have a license. If they don't, the NTC orders ISPs to block them. This is why even giants like Binance, Coinbase, and Gemini faced blocks, they lacked the specific local licenses the BSP requires.

They may think the forum is actively engaged in crypto-trading P2P. Not sure about it though.

But in my opinion, it was really these scam platforms that have been pushing the authorities to block any crypto-related websites, and I also think they need to make a better assessment of which websites are harmful, because blocking this forum is a huge mistake.


Edit: My ISP hasn't blocked the forum yet, anyway.

[KingsDen]

I heard countries like Russia are using VPN to login to this forum because their country has ban this forum, so the best option for Philippines right now is to start using VPN to join the forum, this is not just because of the scam issues in this forum the government really don't understand the forum very well I can tell you for free that if they understand how the forum works they won't take such action.

I heard so and Russian people also confirmed it. No matter how any country blocks a particular website, in as much as the WWW space is still accessible, a brave individual will still access that particular website. It all boils down to the severity of the offense if the offender is caught

But what do you guys expect a lot of countries are actually against Bitcoin and a forum like this they will also not like it but since there's still a way for people in that country to operate using the forum no problem.

If these smaller countries can be mean to bitcoin and bitcoin related platforms, imagine that they have the power US controls. It would have been a hell to us. Maybe we should find time to appreciate US for their liberty ideology.

[Smartvirus]

The people behind this action are morons.

Real morons.

It seems they have mistaken it for a gambling site. It's probably a glitch in an automatic identification system.

If it were easy, those behind this would have literally obliterated the internet.
They don’t even do some findings before taking actions. I wonder what the team behind that did find. There is literary a lot going on in “X” formally tweeter and partly Facebook with almost every project there is having a page and YouTube channels up and running but, they normally don’t do nothing about those.

They are just about making the Philippines more backward with regards to information that might save them from cryptocurrency related scams as, informations available here might not be readily or easily accessible to them no more.

[Shishir99]

The people behind this action are morons. They blocked a website that is actually very informative, and whoever reported it as a scam is probably just trying to ruin the website.

Ruin the website? Are you sure?
Does Philippines government have the authority or the power to take down any website? I am not sure what did you mean by ruin the website. They cannot touch anything of the Bitcointalk forum except for blocking access to this forum, which is not a big issue for privacy freak people anyway. People can easily use a VPN or use TOR browser to access the forum again and use it.

The people who works for the government are often morons. They do not have enough knowledge about many things. Some of them call Bitcoin as scam.
In my country, they banned Reddit saying it's a porn website. Can you imagine? They blocked the entire website just because of some sub-reddits.

[Ziskinberg]

The people behind this action are morons. They blocked a website that is actually very informative, and whoever reported it as a scam is probably just trying to ruin the website.

Ruin the website? Are you sure?
Does Philippines government have the authority or the power to take down any website? I am not sure what did you mean by ruin the website. They cannot touch anything of the Bitcointalk forum except for blocking access to this forum, which is not a big issue for privacy freak people anyway. People can easily use a VPN or use TOR browser to access the forum again and use it.

Wrong choice of words, I guess, sorry for that.
What I meant is, they ruined our chance to access the website. That is more appropriate.
I didn’t mean that they destroyed everything completely, just that their actions affected other users who only wanted normal access.

The people who works for the government are often morons. They do not have enough knowledge about many things. Some of them call Bitcoin as scam.
In my country, they banned Reddit saying it's a porn website. Can you imagine? They blocked the entire website just because of some sub-reddits.

I guess it depends on what kind of government you have. if hey are corrupt, then you are correct.
https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/philippines

Code:

86% --- Percentage of people who think government corruption is a big problem*
19% ----Percentage of public service users paid a bribe in the previous 12 months*

[Charcol]

One thing I find quite strange is how stupid the people of the Philippines are to call such a clear and informative place like BitcoinTalk Forum a scam. They are so stupid that they don't even know that people who come here to scam are punished. And don't they know that DT members and others are always on the lookout to catch scammers here? If they were smart, before banning BitcoinTalk Forum, they would have banned all the social media where scams have been happening regularly for many years, and there are no people there to catch the scams. The eighth wonder of the world.

[Shishir99]

Wrong choice of words, I guess, sorry for that.
What I meant is, they ruined our chance to access the website. That is more appropriate.
I didn’t mean that they destroyed everything completely, just that their actions affected other users who only wanted normal access.

Seems that way. No worries. It happens to me a lot due to language barrier.

I guess it depends on what kind of government you have. if hey are corrupt, then you are correct.
https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/philippines

Code:

86% --- Percentage of people who think government corruption is a big problem*
19% ----Percentage of public service users paid a bribe in the previous 12 months*

You have posted the stats of Philippines, but the issue is similar in other countries as well. When it comes to 3rd world countries, the corruptions is at peak. Even the prime minister of Bangladesh has acknowledge the other day that zero tolerance in corruption is not possible. What a shame. We are hearing this from the prime minister. However, I don't see how corruption is related to banning Bitcointalk or Bitcoin. They banned Bitcointalk just because they do not understand what it is. So, they are some morons who does not have any idea about this forum.

[Lucius]

~snip~
They banned Bitcointalk just because they do not understand what it is. So, they are some morons who does not have any idea about this forum.

I don't believe they don't know what a forum is and I don't think the problem is with the forum and cryptocurrencies, but rather that the ban is the result of very high gambling activity on the forum. However, as you already wrote, the forum can still be accessed with a VPN or Tor, and if everyone used one of those (and they should), this topic wouldn't even exist.

It honestly surprises me how few people on this forum have a sense of privacy as if we were on a forum for growing flowers and ornamental plants.

[mindrust]

Retards. Bitcointalk is not a casino... It is a forum and people can access it via VPN's anyway... So banning bitcointalk accomplishes nutthin. The government bans pr0n websites inmy country. Do they think people watch less pr0n and more national geographic now? Nope, that ain't happening. Banning stuff never works. When there is demand for summthin and you put a ban on the supply, somebody somewhere will provide that supply and put a higher price tag on it. Economics 101. You banned btt, now people will have to pay vpn providers to access it. Morons.