Quiboloy’s Facebook, Instagram pages also taken down?

MANILA, Philippines — The official Facebook and Instagram pages of religious leader Apollo Quiboloy, who is on the most wanted list of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over sex trafficking charges, among others, appear to have been deleted earlier this week.

A check on Quiboloy’s pages on the two platforms, which are both owned by technology company Meta, showed that these are no longer available.

It was unclear if the pages were voluntarily deleted or have been taken down for violation of community standards.

Meta has yet to issue a statement on the matter.

Last June, Quiboloy’s YouTube channel was removed for violation of the video streaming platform’s community guidelines. It was followed by the removal of others affiliated with the religious leader, including the YouTube channels of Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), the Laban Kasama ang Bayan program and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) church.

“Google is committed to compliance with applicable US sanctions laws and enforces related policies under its Terms of Service. After review and consistent with these policies, we terminated the Laban Kasama ang Bayan, KOJC and SMNI YouTube channels,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement sent to The STAR.

Short video platform TikTok also confirmed deleting Quiboloy’s account, citing a violation of its community guidelines. It did not elaborate.

Quiboloy is facing numerous charges in the US over alleged sex and labor trafficking. He has denied the allegations.

Several Filipino netizens have urged social media platforms to implement the sanctions imposed by the US government on the religious leader.

Last year, the US Treasury placed Quiboloy in its list of individuals sanctioned under its Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which blocked all his properties that are in the US or in the possession or control of individuals in the US.

The sanction also prohibited US persons from “making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services by, to or for the benefit of any designated person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods or services from any such person.”

Meta and Google are multinational technology companies headquartered in the US. TikTok, while owned by a company based in China, has a corporate entity that is also based in the US.

Quiboloy’s Twitter account is still accessible, as well as the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages of SMNI.