All social media providers that fail to adhere to the government request to block pornographic and other obscene content will be barred from operating in the country, the Communications and Information Minister has warned.
“The worst case is I will not allow them to be in Indonesia,” said minister Rudiantara, as quoted by Bloomberg. “We are focusing on content. If you violate content then you are violating rules and laws in Indonesia.”
It is understood that Twitter, Google and a host of companies have been put on notice by the government, but it has said that the warning applies to “all platforms.”
Indonesia, the country with the highest Muslim population in the world, has become increasingly concerned about the use of social media to spread material related to terrorism and racial violence, as well as pornography and child abuse.
Facebook’s messaging service WhatsApp recently stirred controversy in the country after the vulgar content was found in GIF content, which led to the government threatening to block the service unless it removed the questionable material.
The Communication and Information Ministry said that it would soon summon Google and Twitter for meetings with government officials to discuss what measures the companies could implement to monitor their content. The ministry said that Google has shown “the most good will” and had been receptive to requests to help monitor social media.