In the absence of a law "with teeth" to combat cyber pirates in the Philippines, Globe Telecom Inc. collaborates with government and content providers to create an "appropriate site-blocking mechanism," Globe Chief Information Security Officer Anton Bonifacio today (June 15) disclosed.

Some 49 percent of online respondents in the Philippines admitted to accessing piracy streaming sites, according to a recent Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA)-commissioned study.

This placed the country as the third highest consumer of illegal content after Thailand (53%) and Vietnam (50%).

Despite this, about half of Filipino respondents recognize that online piracy results in job loss, increases the risk of malware infections, and defrauds the government of taxes.

Globe is also investing in piracy detection technologies for more efficient monitoring and takedown of illegal sites.

At the same time, the telco focuses on placing anti-piracy materials on illegal sites and educating the public about the negative impacts of this practice.

Being exposed to malware and inappropriate content results from piracy, Bonifacio warned.

Globe runs #PlayItRight, an anti-piracy campaign encouraging customers and the public to play content from legitimate sources.

Through this, Globe helps protect the work and sustain the jobs of filmmakers and content creators.

Globe reaffirmed its commitment to step up efforts to combat content piracy in the Philippines amid rising demand for online entertainment such as movies, music, sports, games, and TV shows as many Filipinos stay at home.

Despite the pandemic accelerating the use of Over-the-Top (OTT) services such as Netflix, HBO GO, WeTV, iFlix, and the NBA, many consumers still turn to illegal sources.

They want to avoid paying for multiple services, especially if their preferred content is scattered across different OTTs, and due to the need to prioritize essentials over OTT payments.

“Globe is relentless in fighting online content piracy since this criminal act robs Filipino content creators and artists of their livelihood and limits the potential of our promising entertainment and media industry," Bonifacio explained.

"Pirated content also often contains malware that infiltrates and damages our devices and gets our sensitive information. It also affects bandwidth and slows down network speeds. This affects everyone, and we all have a shared responsibility to curb this,” he stressed.

The telco made the pledge to combat piracy during a regional content protection and anti-piracy workshop led by the North American Gaming Regulators Association (NAGRA) and AVIA.