Philippine govt dismisses hoax shutdown order on e-commerce giants

Published on September 8, 2025 at 11:15
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

Philippine authorities have rubbished an online hoax about a nationwide ban on e-commerce giants that sparked unfounded fears of halted deliveries and courier riders losing their jobs. The claim was falsely shared alongside a misleadingly edited video of former transportation secretary Vince Dizon announcing a crackdown on illegal sales of stored value train cards.

"Lazada, Shopee, TikTok, Facebook are being shut down. What will happen to my orders?" reads the Tagalog-language caption of a Facebook video shared on September 4, 2025.

Viewed over 60,000 times, it appears to show Dizon speaking at a press conference.

"Together with the national police, we will write a letter to Lazada, Shopee, TikTok, Facebook, Carousell. We will send a letter directing them to shut down these sites. We are ordering a shut down," he says.

"If they do not shut down, we will file charges against these online selling [platforms]. Because they are tolerating these illegal activities online."

Dizon has since been reassigned to serve as public works secretary (archived link).

Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on September 8, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The clip was also shared in similar Facebook, TikTok and Instagram posts.

"It's a pity for the countrymen who only make money online, the ordinary people will be hit a lot because even the riders will lose their income," reads a comment from one user.

Another wrote: "Many people will lose their jobs because of what you do."

The clip surfaced after Dizon warned the public against the illegal online selling of "beep" cards -- stored value train cards (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked travel card scams that circulated online.

In July, fact-checking organisation Maldita.es published a report uncovering a global phishing scam involving over a thousand Facebook pages selling fake travel cards, with the Philippines as one of the affected countries (archived link).

The circulating clip, however, has been misleadingly edited.

A reverse image search on Google using a keyframe from the falsely shared video led to footage of an August 26 press conference that the transportation department streamed live on its verified Facebook page (archived link).

The falsely shared video corresponds to the 33-second section starting from the video's 8:27 mark.

Screenshot comparison of the false Facebook post (left) and the Department of Transportation's August 26 livestream (right)

During the press conference, Dizon spoke about beep cards that were being sold online for ten times the regular price.

The false posts omitted the portion of Dizon's remarks where he said authorities were cracking down on online merchants illegally selling the cards.

"We are doing this not to shame people, but to send a clear message to our countrymen who are abusing and taking advantage of their fellow countrymen who just want to buy beep cards.

"Because of our problem last week, there was a shortage of beep cards... there are those who are exploiting our countrymen online," he said at the 4:30 mark.

A copy of Dizon's letter to e-commerce sites ordering them to take down unauthorised sellers of the cards by August 31 was posted on the department's Facebook page (archived link).

The department of also refuted the claims in a September 4 Instagram post (archived link).

"The Department of Transportation is not shutting down online selling platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, Facebook Marketplace, Carousell and TikTok," it said.

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