Komdigi Blocks Meme's Instagram Account That Promotes Online Gambling

Plt. Director General of Public Communication and Media, Molly Prabawati (photo: Komdigi)

JAKARTA - During the period from 4 to 6 December 2024, the Ministry of Communication and Digital has taken action against 14,219 content, accounts, and sites. In addition, Komdigi also blocked three Instagram accounts with many followers, who were affiliated with online gambling.

The three Instagram accounts include mimin_story with 774 thousand followers, @awcogans with 430 thousand followers, and the last one is @mememe.cocakk25 with 177 thousand followers.

In total, from October 20 to December 6, 2024, Kemkomdigi has taken down as much as 478,659 content with details of 442,165 websites and IP, 19,752 content or accounts on the Meta platform, 10,163 file sharing, 3,936 on Google/YouTube, 2,288 on the X, 235 platform on Telegram, and 118 on Tiktok.

"This is the result of public complaints, agency reports/institutions, and cyber patrols. In total from 2017 to December 6, 2024, we have blocked 5.3 million content related to online gambling," said Acting Director General of Public Communications and Media (Director General of KPM), Kemkomdigi, Molly PrabaWAti, in an official broadcast, Friday, December 6.

In addition, Molly also appealed to the whole community to remain careful, because according to her, the modus operandi of judol advertisements on social media is increasingly diverse. One of the tricks that is often used is to disguise gambling advertisements with packaging that looks attractive or not striking.

For example, this advertisement can appear in the form of entertainment content, memes, or viral videos which then insert an invitation to play gambling.

The perpetrators often use fake accounts or accounts with lots of followers to spread links to gambling sites. They also often use certain terms or symbols to trick social media moderation systems, so that their ads can escape platform detection.

These advertisements target users who are active on social media and use persuasive and tempting language, such as the lure of big bonuses or easy chances of winning, "he explained.