Spam comments promoting online gambling are spreading more aggressively across social media, with Instagram and Facebook emerging as the main targets. The pattern shows that operators are no longer relying only on websites, but are instead using high-interaction comment sections to widen their reach.
Komdigi said the shift reflects a more adaptive and increasingly disruptive form of illegal promotion in digital spaces. Accounts with large engagement levels are now being targeted because their comment sections can expose gambling links to far more users in a shorter time.
Meta’s platforms under scrutiny
Director General of Digital Space Supervision Alexander Sabar said the most widespread online gambling promotion has been found on Instagram and Facebook. Komdigi plans to meet with Meta representatives soon to follow up on the findings.
Alexander also urged other platforms to tighten their monitoring of similar activity. According to him, the spam-comment method shows that illegal promoters continue looking for new gaps to exploit across social media.
126,180 spam comments handled in June
Komdigi handled 126,180 spam comments between 1 June and 28 June 2026 across social media platforms. The largest share was found on websites, which accounted for 111,279 cases.
File sharing followed as the next largest category, while YouTube recorded 4,579 findings, Meta recorded 4,549, and X recorded 622. The figures show that the problem is not limited to one platform, even though Meta’s services have become a major concern.
| Platform or Category | Spam Comments Handled |
|---|---|
| Websites | 111,279 |
| File Sharing | Not specified |
| YouTube | 4,579 |
| Meta | 4,549 |
| X | 622 |
| Total | 126,180 |
Komdigi said shutting down gambling sites does not stop the promotion cycle. When one site is taken offline, another can quickly appear and be used again to distribute the same content.
Comment sections are the new battlefield
The ministry sees the move into comment sections as a new tactic in online gambling promotion. By placing spam under accounts with high interaction, the operators can make their content look more visible and spread it faster.
This also means platform oversight can no longer focus only on links or standalone websites. Komdigi stressed that busy comment threads have become another digital space that requires closer supervision.
The ministry has already taken down websites identified as online gambling-related. Even so, the continued appearance of spam comments suggests that the actors behind the promotion are adapting quickly to enforcement efforts.
Komdigi has also called on users not to access, share, or engage with online gambling promotion. Even small interactions in comment sections can help expand the visibility of illegal content.
With spam comments continuing to spread, attention is now turning to how platforms respond to illegal content distribution. Stronger monitoring is seen as essential if online gambling promotion is to be prevented from simply changing form and moving to a different corner of the internet.
