Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday pushed back against circulating “fake news,” alleging that she is recommending the outright ban of Gorebox and the like. 

She lamented that her office had been bombarded with complaints since the weekend, although it was the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center that temporarily banned the video game in question following the 22 June deadly shooting in a high school in Tacloban. 

“I never recommended or said, even thought about banning any game, including this Gorebox,” Hontiveros said in an interview with ANC’s Headstart. “So, don’t let fake news (peddlers) get ahead.”

The lawmaker questioned the logic behind the circulating claims, asserting that the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality—which she chaired—will only start the probe tomorrow, Wednesday. Thus, the panel has not made any conclusions or findings yet.

Hontiveros has drawn backlash after announcing that she will tap the German Embassy in Manila to compel the attendance of the Germany-based Gorebox developer, Felix Filip, to the congressional probe. 

The investigation aims to determine whether online and gaming platforms could be held liable for the alarming spate of school-based violence involving minors. 

This follows a revelation by police during the panel’s last hearing in April that “groomers” or extremists in Western countries are exploiting the said platforms to recruit and encourage children to be radically violent.

Filip turned down the invite, saying he will not participate in the proceedings, whether in person or virtually, as he has no business being involved in the probe. 

He argued that Gorebox is classified as adult content, for ages 18 and above, making it unsuitable for minors.

The suspects in the Tacloban shooting are 14 and 15 years old, both enrolled in the San Jose National High School, where the tragic incident occurred, killing at least three students and wounding 20 others. 

Police pointed to Gorebox as a possible contributor that led to the fatal attack, saying one of the suspects is an avid player of the “violent“ physics-based sandbox video game. 

As a result, Gorebox has been temporarily banned pending an investigation and until the developer implements stricter safeguards for minors.

Hontiveros emphasized that although Filip claimed that there are safeguards in place in Gorebox, his participation in the probe would have allowed for a more thorough discussion of these measures, given the gravity of reports targeting the minors. 

“We had a good precedent when we held [an] earlier hearing with Roblox. The bosses of Roblox even participated on Zoom lang. And following that hearing, they actually started to strengthen the existing safeguards within their game,” she argued.

Roblox had already been banned in several countries, including Russia, China, Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, and Oman, due to child safety concerns. 

During the previous hearing, authorities found that the recent spike in school-based extremist activity was traced to gaming platforms such as Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Free Fire.

They cited a foiled mass shooting by a group of students in Calamba, Laguna, in March as one example.

Authorities intercepted the planned attack following a tip from their foreign counterparts, who followed the digital trail and found that the perpetrators had gotten in touch with the minor suspects through Roblox before shifting to private messaging on Facebook.