In January 2025, Inquirer.Net reported that the Filipino government has shut down over 70,000 illegal job advertisements on social media, therefore stopping “potentially thousands” of prospective migrant workers from being charged recruitment fees for non-existent jobs or from being recruited into exploitative jobs abroad.

50,220 “suspicious” posts were taken down on Facebook and 21,433 on TikTok. The article says that the government coordinated with Meta and TikTok to deactivate the accounts.

The article goes on to past cases where prospective migrants were charged high fees for fraudulent job opportunities, including through the agency Legal Connect Travel Services (see past reporting here); Italy based agencies Golden Power SRLS and Alpha Assistenza (see past reporting here); and Jewel Travel Documentation Service (an investigation showed the company amassed high recruitment fees for the promise of jobs in Canada, Poland, New Zealand and Australia).

In February, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited TikTok and Meta to respond to the article, to disclose if they have engaged with the Department of Migrant Workers and other stakeholders from civil society on the issue, including the date of the engagement and outcome of the engagement; and to outline how they monitor and remove content illegally advertising jobs to migrant workers in the Philippines. Meta and TikTok’s responses can be read in full below.