TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara, said on Monday, March 30, 2015, that his institution found it difficult to block websites spreading radicalism and terrorism ideologies in Indonesia because those websites were not using universal keywords in its domain names. According to Rudiantara, the universal keywords are used by machine to perform automatic blocking of 'harmful' websites.
Rudiantara compared radicalism websites with porn sites. According to Rudiantara, most porn sites use particular keywords so that they would be easy to find through search engines. Rudiantara explained that such keywords are used by the internet's blocking system to prevent users from accessing the websites.
Meanwhile, Rudiantara added, the domain names of websites used to disseminate radical messages are varied, random and have no universal keywords. Therefore, he said, the ministry is still relying on public reports to block websites spreading radical teachings.
Rudiantara revealed that the Ministry only serves as a facilitator for other institutions dealing with radicalism and terrorism issues, including the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT). By the end of last week, Rudiantara claimed that the Ministry had blocked 70 websites that contain radical teachings. However, in the Ministry's letter sent to internet service providers, the Ministry had requested to block 19 websites containing radical teachings, including arrahmah.com, voa-islam.com, and eramuslim.com.
KHAIRUL ANAM
