Fight Online Gambling Spam in the Comment Column, Need Collaboration from All Parties

JAKARTA - The phenomenon of comment spam farming has recently become widespread. According to cyber security observers, this shows that online gambling syndicates are increasingly being pressured by government blockades.

In the past few weeks, social media such as Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok have been filled with many comments offering online gambling. These comments are often found on the accounts of celebrities, influencers, mass media, to educational institutions.

This attack, according to the Chairman of the CISSReC Pratama Persadha Cyber Security Research Institute, is not just a minor disturbance, but a structured exploitation of the moderation gap of the platform targeting ordinary users.

The proliferation of online gambling sites has been a concern in recent years. The number reaches millions, with the majority of players in Indonesia coming from the productive age group.

According to the investigation of the Financial Transaction and Analysis Center (PPATK), it comes from the productive age group.

A total of 55.44 percent of the total players recorded in 2017-2024 were aged 30-50 years. Then 37.6 percent of the age of 21-30 years. There are also 5.72 percent who are players over 50 years old. The smallest and youngest proportion, namely 1.67 percent of the age of 10-20 years.

PPATK Head Ivan Yustiavandana revealed that the circulation of money from judol in 2025 reached IDR 1,200 trillion. This figure is larger than the previous year, which was IDR 981 trillion.

As a manifestation of the war against judol, the Ministry of Communication and Digital closed as many as 2.4 million judol websites from October to November 2025. Meanwhile, this year, as many as 278 thousand judol websites have been blocked by the National Police.

However, even though thousands of sites have been blocked by the government, judol practices continue to emerge. Recently, the comment column of a post on social media often found dozens of even regular comments offering judionline sites. This happens on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.

Pratama Persadha said that this mode falls into the category of spam farming. The perpetrator uses a bot or shadow account that is centrally controlled to automatically distribute links to thousands of uploads. The target, he said, is not people looking for judol, but ordinary users. The wider the reach, the greater the likelihood that someone will click. This is a strategy that relies on volume.

"This mode falls into the category of comment spam farming. The perpetrator uses a bot or shadow account that is centrally controlled to automatically distribute links to thousands of uploads," said Pratama.

This phenomenon actually shows that the steps taken by the government so far have put pressure on the online gambling ecosystem. When access to the main site is increasingly interrupted and official promotional space is increasingly limited, perpetrators are encouraged to find alternative paths through social media.

"This online gambling attack has a uniform pattern, more sophisticated, and systematic.

In terms of regulation, according to Pratama, the government has actually moved by issuing rules and encouraging platforms to be more strict in moderating online gambling content. However, in the field, the execution is still unbalanced. Platforms have algorithms and infrastructure, but to what extent they actually crack down on these spam accounts consistently is still a question.

Pratama emphasized that in order to repel the attack of judol comments on social media accounts, it requires collaboration from all parties, from regulators, platforms, account owners, to the public.

From the side of the account owner, there are steps that can be taken independently. The block and keyword filter feature in the comment column is already available on almost all major platforms. This is the fastest way and does not have to wait for the platform to move.

On the other hand, the public also has a very important role. Social media users are urged not to open links shared in the comments column, not to respond to accounts that promote gambling, and to immediately use the reporting feature if they find such activities.

The sooner an account is reported, the greater the platform's chances of taking action before the promotion is spread more widely. People also need to understand that replying to spam comments can actually increase interaction so that the platform's algorithm has the potential to display the comment to more users.

"All parties, both regulators, platforms, account owners, and the public, to work together to clean up the Indonesian digital space from online gambling. It's not enough to rely on one party. Collaboration is the key," Pratama concluded.