A viral photo circulating on Facebook claims that the Philippine government has released an official list of online games banned for being “violent.” This is satire.
On June 27, an FB page posted a graphic of a list of 43 popular video games, including Minecraft, Mobile Legends, Roblox, Fortnite and Candy Crush. It carried the text:
“Games that are too violent and should be banned forthwith according to LGU.”
Its caption read:
“JUST IN: Several Lawmakers supports (sic) this ban.”
On the lower right corner of the image was a “satire” label.
The following day, the post was taken down, but by then it had been re-posted by two FB pages and an FB user.
One of them included a caption which read:
“Wait.. totoo ba to? DOTA too cool for the kids?
Or di nila naiintindihan yung game kasi too complex? Lol
(Wait, is this true? Is DOTA too cool for the kids? Or do they not understand the game because it’s too complex? Lol).”
The original publisher re-posted the online games list on July 1, and it continues to gain views and engagements. The page is known for satire and parody, and has a significant following.
The disinformation surfaced after the Department of the Interior and Local Government flagged violent video games as potentially harmful to young people, following the June 22 school shooting in Tacloban City carried out by students, aged 14 and 15.
The number of online games in the list is exaggerated, and even with some of these noted to be violent, long-time gamers argue playing has not influenced them to behave viciously.
The post, first published by Malacañang Republic (May 17, 2026) and shared by an FB user and FB pages SK Memes (July 17, 2023) and EXG Boss L.A. (July 8, 2019), has garnered a cumulative 243,700 reactions, 32,000 comments and 219,000 shares, as of writing.
Editor’s note: This fact check was produced with the help of a journalism student from the University of the Philippines Diliman as part of their internship at VERA Files.
